RWBY: A Hardened Soul
by Iron Warriors
Summary: When a soul hardened by conflict, with a conflicting past and burning silver eyes comes to Beacon how will it affect our heroes and in what way will they react to their new challenges? (Chapters 1-8 are extremely sloppy, read at your own risk. Currently on temporary Hiatus but will be spending time trying to fix the grammar & spelling errors when I can.)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone and welcome (see told you guys I'd be back) if you haven't guessed by now this is the rewrite to the hidden faunus. Oh and I'd like to say hello to all the new readers as well.**

 **I do plan to take this story in more or less the same way as the last one but with a few drastic changes to the passing of the story and how some events turn out.**

 **I would like to get feedback from all you guys it really does help with my motivation to write the story. Basically it's up to you guys and gals to keep this alive and moving forward.**

 **XXXXXXXX**

We come across a quaint little house covered in snow while flashing lights with the sound of combat coming from inside the house along with the screams of a baby can be heard as we move closer. When we move to the door of house the noise suddenly stops leaving nothing but silence and the crying of said child which stops soon after.

Inside the walls are pin pricked with bullet holes and deep slashes which go all the way through some of the walls. In one of these rooms a female with jet black hair and slumped cat ears the same colour as her hair sits against a wall in a small puddle of blood with a blackened blade stabbed into the ground next to her.

A figure immersed in shadow ran out a large hole in a wall to the dead woman's right carrying a whimpering blue bundle in it's arms as it fled into the tree line.

 **XXXXXXXX**

"Why hello you little kitten, you finally stop crying yet?" the dark figure said in an deep amused voice. The baby which didn't look more than a year old in his hands stared at him with shining, bloodshot and watery silver eyes. The baby had tiny cat ears folded flat sprouting from his fuzzy head of black hair. The baby did what he could to hiss at the figure holding him.

"Well aren't you a defiant little brat… I think I know exactly what I'll do with you now," the figure flicked the baby's nose causing the baby to cry again as the figure started to run.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Five years later….**

A young boy no older than six with long, tangled and dirty black hair that went to his shoulders, cat ears the same color as his hair with the number "593" marked on a piece of plastic attached to it, pasty white skin and tired silver eyes dug a pick into the soft ground beneath him almost robotically trying to dislodge a red crystal from said ground.

"Hey Adriana did you hear the rumor?" he heard a older gruffer male say to his far left.

"What rumor?" he heard another voice say which must have been this Adriana character.

"Well I overheard that there is a group of Faunus out there protesting for equality," the male said excitedly.

"That must mean _he_ 's getting heat from the press-" Adriana said but was cut off as heavy metal boots walked up. The child looked up seeing a guard with a white snowflake on his shoulder loom over the two that were talking holding a rifle in his hands.

"Get back to digging now or do you two want an ... _"accident"..._ to happen?" the guard threatened.

"No sir," the man said fearfully as a bushy dog tail went between his legs and his started digging again without a word more.

Guards in most of the Dust mines were supposed to guard the workers from Grimm that might spawn from the darkness of the mines but with these ones they had one job to keep the workers working no matter what whether it be Grimm or a cave in. They never really pay attention to the workers unless they weren't doing what they were told or had a broken limb. As for the other miners they treated him like a part of a family he never really knew.

 _If I was big and strong I would beat him up for being a big bully._ The kid thought puffing his cheeks out and flattening his ears as he continued to try and dislodge the red crystal in front of him.

"Be careful what you think little guy," an old man with deer antlers well one deer antler whispered over from next to him with a small smile which put one on the kid's, "who knows they might be able to hear your thoughts."

This old man was the closest thing to a father figure the kid had from making sure the kid did what he was supposed to do, to protecting him from guards when the kid's anger got the better of him and once through a rock at a guard's head. One time the old man gave him a book over the history of Remnant marking the day he showed up with them in the mine.

"You're almost there you just need to hit the Dust directly with the flat of your pick," the old man pointed out. The young boy did as he was told and the crystal came free.

"There you go Kyle you've got it," the old man said with pride

"Thank you," Kyle said allowing himself a small satisfied smile.

"Go get it on the transport I'll be here," the old man said as he continued to dig.

Kyle grabbed the large crystal in both hands and walked over to the nearest cart. When Kyle set the crystal in he started hearing growling from deeper in the cave.

"Hello?" Kyle asked curiously walking toward the growling sound seeing large red angry, hungry and evil eyes staring at him. Oddly Kyle didn't feel frightened by the beast only ten or so feet from him. Wasn't Grimm supposed to scare and eat people? What he felt was a tinge of anger in his belly and confidence as he grabbed his pickaxe in hand and started walking toward the creacher two times his own size.

"Hey brat what the hell are you doing over there get back to your spot," a guard ordered from behind Kyle but he didn't listen as he continued to walk toward the Grimm that was slowly backing away from him like it was afraid.

"HEY!" the same guard said roughly throwing Kyle to the ground knocking the pickaxe from the boy's grip. The guard had no time to react as the Grimm pounced onto him ripping off one of his arms with it's teeth causing blood to shoot out of the stump like a geyser and the guard to emit a horrendous and painful scream.

"Beowulf!" another guard warned in fear shooting the large dog like Grimm off the fallen guard but it was too late to save him because the creature had already torn out the guard's throat with it's teeth causing him to drown in his own blood. As the Beowulf fell Kyle saw more glowing red eyes start opening and moving closer.

Kyle was then dragged away from the monsters and the dead man by the old man and the old man placed his thumb on Kyle's forehead chanting something under his breath that even with Kyle's hearing he couldn't pick up on before the old man let him go. "You must trust me Kyle you need to run as fast as you can you hear I'm right behind you…" the old man pleaded.

"No I'm not leaving you," Kyle argued with tears forming in his eyes and his ears flattened as more guards and some of the workers picked up weapons to defend themselves and the others.

"Do you remember what I told you Kyle?" the old man asked as gunfire, battle cries and howling erupted behind them.

"If you don't say goodbye you aren't really gone you're just not here right now," Kyle choked out with tears running down his cheeks as the old man pushed a book into Kyle's hands.

"That's right but right now I need you to survive for my sake now, go," the old man pushed Kyle back toward the exit. He nodded and disappeared like a ghost when he turned away from the old man leaving only a dust trail showing where he went.

"I'm sorry Kyle," the old man said as a tear fell from his eye before he felt something enter his back and out his chest.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Two days after the mine…**

It had felt like Kyle had been running for weeks and he was exhausted from running as he kept his hands firmly tight around the book in his hands and a knife with an engraved word "protect" on the blade in it. He found the knife when he first opened the book. It was concealed in the back pages of it thankfully the back pages were completely blank so Kyle could still read the book. Kyle was sitting under a tree in a ball crying the old man nor anyone else had come looking for him and Kyle wasn't dumb he heard enough stories to know what happened when there were Grimm attacks and he knew that his last words to that old man was a goodbye. The only family he ever known was gone he was alone again in an unknown and unforgiving place and it scared him.

 _What am I going to do now there's nothing left... I've got nothing,_ Kyle thought hugging his knees tighter to his chest. "Stay alive," the words just kept circling in his head.

 _How do I do that?_ Kyle thought looking up to the sky. At that moment a ship flew over head seaming to be touching down not too far away from where Kyle decided to collapse. _Well that's a start I guess._ Kyle picked himself back up and started to walk toward where he saw the airship land.

Kyle walked for about half an hour before he came across the town and saw the airship docked just on the other side of the town. _Maybe I can sneak onto the ship?_ Kyle thought as he walked into the town clutching his book with the hidden blade in hand.

Kyle decided to take the long way around the town by sneaking through the allies and when he could move along the rooftops trying to get closer to the ship. It may have taken him all day but Kyle managed to sneak onto the ship and into the cargo bay where he found a nook he could fit into. Thankfully the ship wasn't heavily guarded so he was as happy as he could get right now.

 _I hope wherever this thing is going it's a better place than this,_ Kyle thought laying down in a ball around his book to try and get some sleep.

 **XXXXXXXX**

Kyle woke up a few hours later as he felt a rather painful pinch on one of his delicate cat ears. He reached up to it and the pain became harder to bear as he touched the plastic attached to his ear.

 _I've got to get this damn thing off!_ Kyle inwardly yelled as he opened the book grabbing the knife and put the serrated part of blade to the point at which the plastic connected to his ear and began sawing away at the at the plastic connecter. It took him a few minutes to get it off but it was worth it the plastic hit the ground with a loud clack. After that Kyle reached up to the sore ear to rub away the discomfort to find that there was a rather medium sized hole in it and when he touched it his ear felt like a fire was just set off on his head causing him to wine in pain.

"Ow that hurt," Kyle whispered just in case there was someone in the cargo hold as he felt the airship touch down and heard the docking clamps attach themselves to the hull. _I guess that's my que,_ Kyle thought staggering to his feet and sneaking out of the ship.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Well I hope this is a good start to this rewrite. Yes I know I put in a RVB quote in there but to be fair I personally thought it worked well in that scene.**

 **I just want to get something straight here about the whole mine slave thing I got the idea after the introduction of Weiss' father in episode two of volume four. I mean after getting to see his personality I see it like he would be the kind of egotistical asshole to do this just to save on a little money for workers.**

 **Oh and there will be a poll up in my page so I know what you fine readers would like to see out of this fic.**

 **Please review and follow who knows favorite if you want. This is Iron Warriors signing off.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello everyone and welcome back I hope you guys and gals are enjoying this story so far.**

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Twelve hours after waking up on the ship…**

 **Location: Patch**

 **Time: 15:30**

Kyle wandered through the town the ship landed at dirt and dust coating over most of his clothing and exposed skin. As Kyle wandered the streets people gave him slightly sympathetic looks like he was some sort of stray animal causing his ears to flatten against his head hiding them emits his long bushy hair.

Kyle continued walking like this as he came across what looked like a school ground with kids playing in a playground which caused him to stop because he had never seen people this happy. What really caught his attention was two girls one with dark red hair almost black, with his same colored eyes hiding behind a not much older girl with blonde hair, purple eyes and a bit of a tomboyish look to her yelling at and chasing off a small pack of boys. When the girl with blonde hair turned away from the cowering group of boys she locked her purple eyes with Kyle's silver ones in a confused yet friendly way. When their eyes met Kyle turned away and tried to continue walking but stopped as he walked into a large man.

"Sorry," Kyle said keeping his head down and walking around the man he bumped into.

"No problem kid," the man said grabbing onto Kyle's shoulders gently. "Hey you don't look so well are you okay?"

"I'm fine sir," Kyle lied weakly holding himself up with the added pressure of the man's hand. Kyle truthfully felt like falling over do to exhaustion, hunger and dehydration.

"Daddy!" the red headed girl screamed hugging the man's leg. When the man's attention went elsewhere Kyle slipped out of his grip and ran as fast as his legs would carry him which oddly he felt kind of fast.

Kyle ran for what he felt was only a couple minutes before tripping over his own feet and tumbling over a few times before stopping at a dock flat on his back. "Ow…" Kyle whined looking up at the sky from where he was lying down.

"Hey you okay?" a feminine voice asked as a young girl with golden eyes short black hair that ran down to her shoulders and cat ears looked down at him in confusion.

"Blake don't run off like... that...," Kyle heard someone yell at the girl that must be Blake looking at him.

"Sorry Adam I saw him fall and I wanted to make sure he was alright," Blake stated folding her arms as a boy with bright red hair and bull horns walks into Kyle's view looking down at him.

"Are you okay?" Adam asks giving Kyle a hand to help him up.

"I don't feel so well," Kyle tries reaching for Adam's hand but all the muscles in Kyle's body tense up and his hand falls back down onto the pavement with a solid thump and he whimpers in pain.

"Blake help me get him to his feet," Adam said with a little concern reaching down grabbing Kyle's arm while Blake grabs his other one and they both lift Kyle to his feet.

"My book," Kyle said looking at his book which looked to be a good five yards away.

"I got it you think you can keep him steady Adam?" Blake asked looking past Kyle to Adam.

"Yeah I got him, he's not as heavy as he looks," Adam said as Blake let go and walked over to the book.

"What should we do with him?" Blake asked looking at Adam.

"Well the way I see it is our new friend here needs some rest," Adam looks at Kyle, "do you have anywhere to go?" Kyle shook his head mournfully 'no', "then he's coming with us."

"W-what?" Kyle asked shocked as they started to move.

"Why not it obvious you can't really move on your own, you might need a place to stay and who said you can't have too many friends?" Adam stated with a smirk.

"Thank you for your hospitality but I'm actually trying to find the White Fang," Kyle said trying to stand up and walk without needing Adam supporting him and failing miserably.

"Well you're in luck," Blake said happily to Kyle as she skipped alongside Kyle and Adam walking, "because we're apart of the White Fang." Kyle looked at Blake and Adam with a shocked expression.

"You... both of you... are in the White Fang?" Kyle asked shellshocked by the news.

"Yep by the way I don't think we got your name?" Blake pointed out and Adam nodded in agreement.

"Um well I'm Kyle," Kyle said after a couple seconds.

"I'm Adam Taurus you've already met Blake," Adam said as they walked into a large gathering of Faunus.

"Hey Adam who's the new kid?" a man asked as they passed him.

"New member sir we're going to get him some food and a new change of cloths," Adam stated standing a little bit taller showing pride as he still supports a limping Kyle by one arm. Kyle is set down at a table on what seems to be a ship.

"You two stay here I'll get us some food," Adam said walking away.

"Okay," Blake said with a warm smile to Adam as he walked off before turning her attention to Kyle, "I hope he brings a big plate of tuna."

"Hey Blake what exactly does the White Fang do?" Kyle asked looking Blake in the eye.

"Well let's see um... we do a lot of things from civil rights protests to raising money to build homes for the homeless," Blake said with a proud smile before frowning and drooping her ears, "but it doesn't seem to be working out the way we wanted it to, humans are too stubborn and bullheaded and we don't have enough support to do much of anything."

"I see," Kyle said as a tray of still steaming fish was set in front of him and Adam sat next to Blake putting a plate in front of her.

"What were you guys talking about?" Adam asked.

"Kyle was asking about what the White Fang does," Blake said after biting a chunk out of her fish with a smile.

"Well did she answer your... question…" Adam trailed off wide eyed as Kyle seemed to rip and shred at his food like a predator eating it's prey.

"Hm… you say something?" Kyle asked after inhaling half the food on his plate.

"When was the last time you ate something?" Adam asked with a heavy mixture of shock and worry. Kyle set his fork down gently thinking about the last time he really did anything but run coming up to the day that lead to all this causing his ears to flatten mournfully.

"I don't know everything been feeling like a blur for a while now," Kyle half lied looking at Adam and Blake with sorrow filled eyes.

"Don't worry about it we're all friends here," Blake said setting her hand between the three of them, "friends to the end?"

"Friends til the end," Adam repeated setting a hand on top of Blake's with a smile at her before turning his head to Kyle with a questioning look.

"Why not I could use some more friends," Kyle said setting a hand on top of Adam and Blake's, "friends wherever this takes us."

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Eleven years after joining the White Fang…**

 **Location: White Fang Camp in the Emerald Forest…**

 **Time: 10:00…**

A seventeen year old Kyle with short black hair, Grimm mask which covered his head, black trench coat, black pants and a sword belt with sword and dagger sheaths attached to it storms through camp with blinding speed searching for his hent. When he reaches it Kyle pauses and looks around himself before heading inside finding Blake standing there reading a note over some bags.

"What are you doing here, Blake?" Kyle asked as he stepped inside the tent.

"I came to get you for a supply raid Adam's orders…" Blake looked at the bags and the note with a worried expression, "what is this? The camp doesn't pack up for another two days."

"I'm leaving Blake," Kyle said with his ears flattening.

"Were you transferred because I thought Adam liked to keep us close?" Blake asked with a confused expression.

"No… I'm leaving this whole damn mess," Kyle said removing his Grimm mask. His expression depressed and he looked slightly paler than usual.

"Kyle what happened?" Blake asked in shock after seeing Kyle's face as Kyle sighed and sat down on one of the bags refusing to meet Blake's gaze.

"Do you ever wonder why Adam keep's us next to him and refuses to let us join in with a lot of the missions with any other White Fang members?" Kyle asked hunching over a little bit with anger in his tone.

"Kyle what did you do?"Blake asked with fear in her voice.

"I snuck into one of the groups heading out on a raid," Kyle sighed but when Blake didn't respond to him he continued, "things were going as you would expect the standard droid group responding to hostiles, sneaking around gathering people up and putting them somewhere out of the way until the mission was complete but that changed quickly when the group's leader decided to order us to execute the workers-" he was cut off then by Blake.

"When was this? Did you tell Adam about this?" Blake asked placing a hand on Kyle's shoulder which he shrugged off.

"He said that was 'Adam's orders', and it happened a couple months ago," Kyle said with venom looking up at Blake with tears in his eyes, "I stood there and watched as innocent people, people with families and loved ones to return home to get gunned down like they were no more than cattle."

"I don't believe this," Blake said stubbornly with her clenched into fists, "Adam would never…"

"Let innocent people get killed?... yeah I used to believe that too, Blake," Kyle said as Blake's scroll went off with a message.

"Looks like the mission is about to begin we should get going if your coming," Blake said as she walked toward the tent flap.

"I'm coming but just to make sure you don't get yourself killed," Kyle said putting back on his mask and following Blake out of the tent carrying a small pack.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: deep inside the Emerald Forest…**

 **Time: 12:00...**

Kyle and Blake emerged into an empty clearing with a large rock in the middle of said clearing. "He's not here," Kyle pointed out looking over the small clearing.

"Like usual," Blake said sitting on the rock.

Kyle made one last look around before sitting against the rock pulling out an old book to pass the time before Adam decides to arrive.

"Kyle?" Blake asks from her perch on the rock looking down at him.

"Yeah Blake?" Kyle asked in return looking up at Blake.

"Can you please remove that stupid mask I want to see your face when I speak with you," Blake sighed do too Adam's obsession with the damn things and also the fact that she didn't want another one to keep up that act even if he wasn't sticking around much longer. Kyle did as he was asked setting the mask next to his left on the ground.

"What is it you want to ask?" Kyle asked tilting his head to the side.

"Why did you stick around for this long after the White Fang went militarized if you plan to leave us all behind like this?" Blake asked her tone of voice and ears gave away her emotions.

"I stayed because at first I thought we were doing the right thing Blake," Kyle sighed his ears flattening as he remembered that eventful mission, "but I stuck around to keep you safe because you're the only friend I can trust now."

"Then why not stay now?" Blake asked.

"I can't take it anymore Blake each second I'm here I feel that another innocent life has just been lost do to my support of this whole mess… the blood is on my hands," Kyle explained looking at the ground.

"Kyle you don't know if it was Adam that gave that order," Blake said stubbornly looking down at Kyle.

"I guess we'll find out in a moment," Kyle said turning away from Blake setting his back to the rock and returning to his book.

A few tense minutes passed before Kyle and Blake heard movement in the tree line. Adam came out from it and Kyle stood putting his book away in his bag, hefting his bag over his shoulder and placed his Grimm mask over his face.

"Blake…" Adam said to get her attention before turning his gaze to Kyle, "... it's time to go." Adam turned away from them and walked back the way he came followed close behind by Blake and Kyle kept his distance as he followed the others. They took off at a run as soon as they reached the tree line.

 _I've got a really bad feeling about this_ , Kyle thought to himself as he followed ducking under stretched out branches and jumping over logs, rocks and twisted uprooted roots.

They ran like this for god knows how long before they reached a cliff edge and Adam jumped down with Blake at his side and Kyle close behind the two. They could see a train as they came down the slope and Kyle noted the Shnee symbol on the sides of each and every car loosening his sword in his sheathe as he and the others jumped to the top of the train unsheathing their blades and impaling the train car's roof with said blades so they didn't fly off the train. Kyle's sword consisted of two blades attached to it's slightly wider cross guard so both blades would fit to it with a full inch in between the blades of the sword. The blades to the weapon were a deep crimson red almost completely black in color with a slight golden glow surrounding the blades.

"Kyle open the hatch," Adam called back to Kyle when they stopped skidding across the roof of the train car. Kyle nodded completely silent as he opened the top hatch to the inside of the car as Adam jumped in not even giving Kyle one last look before jumping down.

 _Why do I feel something bad about to happen?_ Kyle thought to himself gripping his sword a tiny bit tighter as Blake jumped down to join Adam after giving Kyle a slightly sympathetic look before jumping down to Adam's location. Kyle followed down when he heard a gunshot and swords clashing finding Adam and Blake engaging droid defenders in the cargo cab. Kyle noticed a large group of droids run into the room behind Adam and Blake about to blind side them from the rear. Kyle took action activating his semblance and charging the droids head on impaling one's power cell on his double bladed sword like a shish kabob and using his knife to slash the cords out of another one's throat causing both to spark and shut down do to the damage. One of the remaining droids aimed a gun arm at Kyle as he yanked out the deadly blade from the droid he impaled and opened up a hail of fire as Kyle slid to the left leaving bullet holes where he once stood and activated his semblance to run at blinding speed grabbed its arm and used the automatic weapon attached to it to shoot down the remaining droids before stabbing the droid in the back power supply hatch with his knife and letting it fall.

"Kyle we're moving," Blake called to him as she went through a door to another car.

"On my way," Kyle said to himself as he jogged after them to find them engaging more droids. _Droids it's always combat droids I'd thought they would pack something heavier with the amount of raids we've been doing._ Kyle thought pressing a button on his sword that made one of the blades detach so he had two swords in his hands one held in a reverse grip and the other in a normal grip as he charged in to help. When Kyle got to combat he spun with his arms stretched out cutting five roids down to size in this motion before blocking another one's strike at him with the sword held in a reverse grip as he cleaved it in half with the other sword. Kyle rolled on the ground ducking under Blake's weapon as it flew over head decapitating the last droid before being pulled back to Blake with a ribbon.

"Thanks," Kyle called out as he dusted himself off and putting his swords together again to make one sword. Blake nodded with a smile as she turned and moved to the next car. When Kyle finished checking the car he was in for hostiles he joined up with Blake and Adam.

Adam moved to one of the Dust crates in the car opening it. "Perfect Kyle, Blake head to the next car I'll set the charges," Adam ordered with a sinister grin.

"What about the passengers?" Blake asked her ears slowly folding down against her head.

"What about them?" Adam asked cruelly turning toward a now petrified Blake. Blake turned her head toward Kyle the look of horror covering her features with her eyes saying 'you were right'.

At this moment Kyle took his mask off shattering it on the ground showing anger and remorse toward Adam. "No Adam you can't do this it's not right. I didn't sign up for this shit we're not a murderer's," Kyle said through his teeth with anger in his voice as Adam charged him with his sword drawn in a two handed grip over his head ready to cleave Kyle right down the middle but was completely stopped and repelled as Kyle used his twin bladed sword and immense strength to block the blow causing sparks to fly from the contact of the blades.

"Both of you stop it," Blake yelled out as a giant bipedal tank came out of the darkness of the car it's targeting lasers tracking and locking on the three person strike team where currently the two males of the group were fighting each other.

When Kyle broke away from Adam's attack he looked over to Blake and his silver eyes shot open looking at the monstrous machine behind Blake. "Blake! Look out!" Kyle yelled out kicking his semblance on and tackling Blake out of the way as a series of rockets exploded where she once stood.

"We'll finish this later," Adam said charging the tank.

"Yeah later," Kyle hissed as he stood up bringing Blake up with him. "You okay Blake?" Kyle asked her taking a dual wheeled bladed stance with his swords.

"Yeah I'll be fine," Blake said not meeting Kyle's stare.

"Come on we've got to take that thing down," Kyle said before charging at the tank as it threw Adam away. Kyle charged in using his speed to dodge around the Dust projectiles with Blake and Adam. Kyle knelt down when he reached the base of the tank allowing Blake to jump up using Kyle's back as a boost as she slashed at it's face while Kyle slid beneath the tank slashing at it's under belly before being kicked back the way he came with Blake slamming into him causing them to tumble back away from the tank hitting the far door where the next train car was.

"We need to get out of here," Blake groaned as she stood up bringing Kyle up with her.

"Yeah and quick," Kyle said rolling his shoulders with a loud pop as Adam joined them.

"Kyle get up there and distract it," Adam pointed at Kyle with anger as Kyle looked over Adam's shoulder seeing the tank's small cannons form into one large one gathering energy and light in the barl.

"Get down," Kyle said grabbing Blake and turning her away from the cannon shielding her with his body from the inevitable blast that tore apart the car and sent the three skidding onto the next flatbed train car. Kyle groaned on the ground his back smoking and his coat on fire.

"Kyle your coat," Blake said and Kyle slipped off the slightly burning and smoking coat revealing a white shirt underneath throwing it to the side as his picked back up his swords.

"Both of you distract it," Adam ordered as his semblance was kicked in.

"Are you sure?" Blake asked and Adam nodded angrily.

"Well no point in arguing," Kyle said reattaching his blades to make one sword and charging at the tank slashing away at it's legs as Blake attacked it's upper torso.

"Now!" Adam yelled out. Blake to flip away from the tank as Kyle got kicked back from it landing on his burned back with a hiss of pain.

"Kyle," Blake yelled out picking Kyle up by his arm and also grabbing his pack to his feet and whispering to Kyle, "come on we're getting out of here."

"Blake?" Kyle said weakly as she lead him to another flatbed train car and setting him softly against a crate.

"Don't worry just keep still," Blake said patting Kyle on the shoulder before walking over to the connector piece between the cars blocking Adam.

"Blake, what are you doing?" Adam asked tilting his head to the side.

"I sorry Adam I can't be apart of this anymore," Blake said preparing to cut the line.

"Wait," Adam pleaded but was already too late as Blake cut the line away as Kyle faded from consciousness.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Unknown…**

 **Time: 15:05**

Kyle groaned as he woke up to see Blake dabbing his forehead with a damp cloth in what looks like a cave. "Blake?" Kyle asked trying to sit up but Blake pushed him back down.

"Kyle stay still you took a lot of damage from that fight," Blake ordered looking at Kyle with worry in her eyes making Kyle feel guilty on the inside as he turned his eyes away from her to the ceiling of the cave.

"How long was I out?" Kyle asked tasting copper in his mouth.

"A couple hours I moved you off the train when I had enough strength," Blake responded, "how are you feeling?"

"Pretty good all thing considered," Kyle fround, "why?" Blake gave Kyle a confused look. "Why save me why did you leave?"

"You were right Kyle about Adam and the White Fang is something I have no desire to be apart of anymore and I couldn't leave my best friend behind like that can I?" Blake smiled at Kyle when she finished he statement.

"I guess not thank you," Kyle chuckled with a smile.

"Now get some rest you'll need it," Blake said smiling.

"If you say so," Kyle said as his eyes slowly closed again to the comforting darkness of sleep.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Well guys I hope you enjoyed this chapter the poll is still up if anyone wants to vote on the the way this story turns out. Don't forget to follow and review.**

 **Iron Warriors signing off...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everyone I just want to quickly say thank you for all the support so far this has been a better turn out in two chapters than my previous story ever got by this point and I hope you all enjoy.**

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Unknown…**

 **Time: 07:00…**

Kyle awoke with a groan as he sat up with a hand on his forehead. "Blake?" Kyle called out looking around the cave for his long time friend to see nothing but an empty cave, "come on this isn't funny where are you?" Kyle stood up strapping his sword and knife belt to his hip before looking around the cave again still finding anyone.

 _She's gone,_ Kyle thought and somehow he felt like a part of him was torn away as his ears flattened _, I'm alone… that figures…_

Kyle walked out of the cave his head held low as he moved through the forest until he came upon a somewhat interesting yet frightening site, a fresh blood trail on the ground. _That's not a good sign,_ Kyle thought his face turning pale as he traced and followed the blood trail through the forest using his speed to dart around for a good solid minute before he found a badly injured female wolf lying protectively around a small onyx black wolf pup. As soon as Kyle walked into the clearing the half dead wolf looked up at him as he knelt down beside it petting her fur back along the top of her head.

 _You poor girl what happened to you?_ Kyle thought as he stopped petting her examining the bloody slashes and bite marks coating her fur. The wolf then looked down at her pup and poked it with her snout causing it to wake up and lick at her snout. The mother looked up at Kyle with pleading watery orange eyes and whined at him.

"You want me to take him?" Kyle asked the half dead wolf and she only whined more before laying her head back down with her last exhale of life closing her eyes. Kyle looked over to the pup trying to wake his mother back up whining and small tears rolling across his furry snout.

"Come here you'll be okay little guy," Kyle said picking up the shaking pup and hugging him to his chest trying to comfort the small fuzzy black puppy in his arms as it howled in loss.

"I think I'll name you Onyx." Kyle stated as he rubbed Onyx's small head between his ears with his thumb when the pup finally calmed down and settled in Kyle's arms.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Six months after leaving the White Fang…**

 **Location: Vale…**

 **Time: 22:00…**

A dark figure with a black hood black leather coat that reaches down to his knees with an emblem of a white sword on a red shield with a gold lining around the shield background on his left of his coat just above his heart and black jeans walked through a mostly empty street of downtown Vale with a large dog behind him heading to one place in particular _Tukson's Book Trade_. The figure knocked when he reached the door with three slow knocks.

"Who is it?" a man asked cracking the door open.

"Third Crusade," the dark figure said looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was there overhearing.

"Get in here," the man said opening the door so the figure could get in followed by the large dog before the door shut again.

"Thanks Tukson," the figure said removing his hood showing black cat ears, black hair and silver eyes.

"No problem Kyle anything for a friend, where did you get the dog?" Tukson said leaning on a bookshelf.

"His name is Onyx and he's a wolf," Kyle stated as he whistled a small tune and Onyx sat down next to the door, "are the transcripts ready?"

"Yep and they're already shipped off by yours truly," Tukson said with a smirk as he pulled out a folded slip of paper and held it out for Kyle to take.

"What's this?" Kyle asked taking the paper.

"That is an acceptance letter yong hunter to be," Tukson said with a light chuckle, "I also have some news for you a certain friend of yours was…"

"We both know I don't have any friends left Tukson you know that," Kyle interrupted with venom in his voice putting the letter into his coat pocket as he remembered the events that lead to this. Adam trying to kill him and Blake abandoning him to the wind without even a goodbye. This all causing Tukson to flinch.

"So about my weapon?" Kyle asked in more of a calm manner.

"It's been made raiser sharp just as you asked," Tukson said with a sigh going into a back room and returning with Kyle's sword and sheathe in hand, "here." When Kyle studied the sheathe it had two words engraved into it.

"What is _'Mau Maka'_ supposed to be?" Kyle asked running a finger over the bronze engraving of the sheathe.

"Well I noticed your weapon didn't have a name so I decided to give it one," Tukson said with pride, "' _Mau Maka'_ means double blade I thought it was appropriate for a sword of such a caliber."

"It works… thanks," Kyle said with a smile as he hooked _Mau Maka_ to his belt, "there is one more thing I need from you."

"What is it?" Tukson asked as he leaned on his counter.

"I need you to get out of Vale," Kyle deadpanned looking at Tukson.

"What? Why?" Tukson asked with shock standing to full height.

"Because when Adam finds out and he will find out we both know this he's going to tear you limb from limb," Kyle stated folding his arms across his chest.

"You're right okay fine I'll go," Tukson sighed, "it was nice running the shop while it lasted."

"Thank you for everything I better be going I've got a busy day tomorrow," Kyle stuck out his hand to Tukson.

"Yeah it's been one hell of a ride," Tukson said shaking Kyle's hand, "you be careful you hear."

"I was going to say the same thing," Kyle said as he set a wig on his head hiding his ears and walked back out into the night followed by Onyx.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Vale Airfield…**

 **Time: 07:30…**

Kyle waited in line to board the airship to Beacon feeling kind of queasy thanks to motion sickness. He'd discovered it on his second airship ride with Adam and Blake when he was seven and learned to counteract it it when he was ten by never eating or drinking anything at least four hours beforehand, he still felt like he was on the verge of throwing up but he would never have to actually hold his food down again. Onyx sniffed Kyle's hand sensing Kyle's distress and whined.

"Hey it's okay Onyx I just don't like airships is all," Kyle said kneeling down stroking Onyx's head and back causing the wolf's tail to wag slightly.

"NOW BOARDING FOR BEACON ACADEMY," an intercom blurted out and people started moving to board the airship.

"Well come on Onyx let's go we don't want to be late do we?" Kyle said with a smile at the wolf who was looking up at him knowingly, _I swear he can understand me sometimes,_ Kyle thought turning away from Onyx grabbing his bag and walked toward the flight check in.

"I'm sorry sir we don't allow pets on the ship we only allow weapons and luggage," a flight attendant stated stopping Kyle's path.

Kyle looked down at Onyx who was looking at him confused. "But he is one of my weapons," Kyle said with dissatisfaction in his voice, "what will I tell the combat instructor when I show up with half my weapons?" The flight attendant paled and stepped aside for Kyle.

"Sorry sir you and your wolf may enter the ship," she said meekly bowing her head as Kyle passed by.

 _I can't believe that actually worked,_ Kyle thought in amazement after he passed the flight attendant and looked down to where Onyx was next to him looking up at Kyle with what seemed to be the same expression as far as Kyle knew about the jet black wolf paddling alongside him.

When Kyle and Onyx got onto the airship and found a quiet corner of it to rest at an unexpected flash of red and black zoomed in front of him startling Onyx who was lying at Kyle's feet and Kyle who immediately reached for _Protector_ his overall trusty razor sharp combat knife.

"Is that a dog," a little girl about two years younger than he was with red almost black hair, black long necked and sleeved blouse with red frills at the ends of her sleeves, a black corset with red lacing covers her abdomen and stomach, a black skirt covers her from her waist to her mid thigh with red frills at the bottom, black transparent stockings cover her legs, black and red boots cover her feet and a red cloak covers her from neck to heel gushed as she knelt down to face Onyx eye to eye.

"He's Onyx and he's a wolf," Kyle said with a very calm voice showing zero emotion when speaking to the red hooded female giving Onyx a staring contest.

"RUBY ROSE GET BACK HERE I'm… not… done… with you?" a woman with long blonde hair that reaches her lower back, with an orange scarf wrapped around her neck, a brown short sleeved jacket that was halfway zipped stretches to the middle of her stomach showing off some skin of her well toned stomach, a yellow tanktop poked out of the jacket empathising her cleavage, with a belt resting on her hips the same color as her jacket with a small sash off the back of it, black fingerless gloves with large yellow bracelets attached to her wrists, black short shorts that to Kyle seemed on her to be no more than a pair of boy's boxers at first glance, orange stockings peaking just above tan knee high boots and a blue bandana tied in a knot on her left leg called out in irritation and amusement at the red hooded girl that must be Ruby. The blonde looked at Kyle and Onyx quizzically as she stepped up to Kyle, Onyx and Ruby.

"Well hello~," she said giving Kyle a good look over with a wink causing Kyle to sink further into his chair out of the oddness of the situation before her attention went to Onyx, "I thought Beacon doesn't allow pets?"

"He's an exception," Kyle said nodding down to Onyx who was swaying side to side causing Ruby to do the same before Onyx nudged Ruby's left side causing the young girl to fall on her right side.

"I can see that," the blonde chuckled as Ruby whined sitting up and petting Onyx's shaggy black fur coat, "you look familiar, did you happen to go to Signal Academy by any chance?"

"No I'm from out of town," Kyle lied as he recalled the one instant where he ever saw these two girls in his mind almost twelve years ago.

 _No this can't be those same girls,_ Kyle thought shaking the image from his head.

"Well I'm Yang that's Ruby if you haven't guessed by now... What's your's?" Yang asked leaning into her seat.

"Kyle," Kyle taking his attention away from the girls and over the rest of the cabin crammed with future hunters noticing one person turning a particularly recognizable shade of green as the ship stirred and took off.

"Excuse me," Kyle said fishing a large paper bag out of his duffle bag standing up and heading over to the guy struggling to keep his breakfast down. The guy had scraggly blonde hair with white plate armor over a black hoody, torn jeans, and black and white tennis shoes with a simple sword and white steel sheath giving him the look of a knight.

"Excuse me but it looks like you're going to need this," Kyle said handing the student the paper bag.

"Thank you," the student said taking the paper bag from Kyle and immediately throwing up in said paper bag.

"You good?" Kyle asked when the student stopped up chucking his breakfast.

"Yeah how did you know?" he asked wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"Same problem man," Kyle said looking at the student with a sympathetic look.

"Then why are you not up chucking too?" the student asked looking at Kyle with suspicion.

"I've got a trick don't eat before hopping an airship," Kyle stated with a smirk.

"That actually sounds like a good idea," the student stated, "I'm Jaune by the way."

"I'm Kyle nice to meet you Jaune," Kyle said patting Jaune on the back as Onyx came up sniffing around. Clearly he was able to escape the rambunkshus little Ruby and Yang.

"Ahhh! Is that a wolf?" Jaune jumped back away from Onyx who accidentally nudged the young white knight's leg.

"Yeah you're the first person so far to notice Onyx is a wolf and don't be shy he's friendly," Kyle knelt down scratching behind Onyx's ears.

"I thought pets weren't allowed at Beacon," Jaune asked looking at the jet black wolf with curiosity.

"Well no they don't but I've been taking care of Onyx since he was a pup and I can't just leave him behind," Kyle said looking solemnly at Onyx, "I guess we're kind of a pack if you'd call it that."

"I see well..." Jaune turned green as the ship took a sudden turn and the news that was playing was cut out replaced by a recorded message of what looked like a woman with blonde curly hair tied back in a tight bun, a white blouse tucked into a black skirt that spanned from the bottom part of her breasts to her knees, black transparent stocking, black high heeled boots and a battered black and purple cape.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon, my name is Glynda Goodwitch," Glynda's pre recorded message said, "you are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace..."

 _If you can believe that you must be living under a rock,_ Kyle thought looking at all the other occupants of the airship cabin which all of them seemed fixed on the hologram.

"And as future huntsmen and huntresses it is your duty to uphold it," Glynda's hologram message continued with a proud smile, "you have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." The hologram faded out.

"We have now arrived at Beacon please exit in an orderly manner thank you for flying Vale airlines and have a fantastic year young hunters," the intercom said with cheer in her voice as everyone started filing toward the doors.

"Come on Onyx let's go don't want to miss the first day do we?" Kyle said scratching Onyx's head before following the crowd off the ship bags in hand and weapons on his hip with Onyx paddling along tail wagging from side to side lazily.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 _So this is Beacon Academy?_ Kyle thought looking around the courtyard, _at least it's got a good view up here._ Kyle continued walking through the courtyard examining every crevice and small detail for any cracks inside the so called perfect school before an explosion startled him out of his musing. Onyx smelt the air growled and ran off toward where smoke was still coming from.

"What the… Onyx wait up," Kyle called chasing after the young wolf. When Kyle reached the blast site he noticed a small deathly pale girl with platinum white hair tied in a side pony tail held still by a small tiara, with a form fitting white dress that faded into baby blue near the lower half, a white dress coat with the same blue fading as the dress covered her shoulders and arms, a pair of white high heeled boots covered her feet up to her middle lower leg but the thing that caught Kyle's eye was the Shnee snow flake on the back of her coat filling Kyle's mind with a mixture of pain and anger causing Kyle to grab Onyx by the nape of his black fur coat and dragged them both off to the side behind a pillar silently watching as the _Shnee_ yelled at, lectured and berated Ruby and Ruby yelling back.

 _Maybe it would be a good idea to intervene,_ Kyle thought as a girl with long black hair and a bow placed right on her head, with a black bandana tied around her neck, a white blouse under a black vest with a cape coming off the end of the back, white short shorts, black stocking that fade into purple at the knee and down to black boots walked into the argument and intervened in the argument with a book in hand. The look of the girl made Kyle's heart sink and paled. _Blake?_ Kyle wanted to call out but couldn't all he could do was watch as she diffused the situation and walk away.

 _Blake must be the friend Tukson was talking about,_ Kyle realized as he slowly walked with Onyx toward the auditorium where they were to get their first instructions from the teaching staff after leaving the scene where he saw the ghost of his past.

Kyle leaned on a wall toward the entrance of the auditorium with Onyx napping at his feet as more and more students poured in all of them first years. Kyle then noticed as Headmaster Ozpin walked on stage followed by Glynda Goodwitch.

"Ahem… I'll keep this brief," the Headmaster said getting all the students attention that clearly didn't see him take the stage, "you have traveled here in search of knowledge, to hone your crafts and acquire new skills and when you have finished you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people…"

 _You could say that,_ Kyle thought looking at Ozpin directly to find the Headmaster staring intently at him with a somewhat familiar glint in his eye causing Kyle to jump a bit before Ozpin directed his attention to the rest of the student body.

"But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose, direction," Ozpin stated shockingly bluntly causing a small commotion amongst the crowd, "you assume knowledge will free you of this but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far it is up to you to take the first step." Ozpin walked off to the side to let Glynda at the mic before returning his strange knowing gaze to where Kyle was.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight," Glynda said in a commanding tone unlike the proud tone of her pre recorded message back on the airship, "tomorrow your initiation begins be ready you are dismissed." Ozpin and Glynda retired from the stage and out a back door as students started to leave the auditorium in mass.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Ballroom…**

 **Time: 20:00…**

Kyle sat against a wall reading in the upper story of Beacons ballroom wearing a sleeveless white undershirt with his emblem of the sword and shield tattooed to his left bicep and simple gray sweat pants. For the most part the top level was surprisingly vacant except for a couple people spread out here and there. Onyx was lying next to him gnawing on a dog bone with intent on breaking it in half.

 _I guess it's about time to start getting some rest for tomorrow,_ Kyle thought putting his book away and lying down on his sleeping mat as the last light down stairs died out leaving them all to the darkness of sleep.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Headmaster's Office…**

 **Time: 20:31…**

"Are you sure he's him Ozpin?" Glynda asked looking over video footage in the ballroom of one particular student.

"Yes I do Glynda," Ozpin said with a matter of fact tone in his voice, "there is only two people in this whole world left with those kinds of eyes and they're both here so it has to be him."

"And if you're wrong?" Glynda asked hesitantly.

"Then there's something we missed," Ozpin said with more of a serious tone, "you may head out Glynda I have some paperwork to do."

"Yes headmaster," Glynda said turning to the elevator and leaving Ozpin to his solitude.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Well there you go hope you all liked it. Don't forget to follow and review your opinions on the story.**

 **Iron Warriors signing out...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Location: Beacon Ballroom…**

 **Time: 5:10…**

Kyle bolted up in a sitting position breathing heavy with fear in his eyes and sweat coating his forehead with his knife in hand. Once Kyle regained his senses he set his knife down and grabbed his scroll turning on the homepage finding the time to be only a little passed five in the morning.

 _It was just a dream Kyle you're still alive,_ Kyle reminded himself wiping a shaky hand across his face as he stood up slipping out of his sweat pants and tanktop and into a plain grey t-shirt and a pair of knee length running shorts quietly as to not wake Onyx or anyone else for that matter tiptoeing down and out the main doors quietly.

 _I've got to get that dream out of my head,_ Kyle thought taking off at a brisk non aura or semblance powered run as the door to the ballroom shut.

Kyle made it his goal to explore every portion of the outer areas of the academy during his early morning run passed the cafeteria, the classrooms, sparing rooms, library and the dorm areas. Kyle ran passed a few of the upperclassmen during his run before stopping at the cliff edge overlooking Vale breathing heavily with sweat stained clothes.

"Hey what are you doing up so early freshman?" one of the students called out to Kyle as she passed.

"You know getting the blood moving before initiation got to be at a hundred percent right," Kyle shot back with a smirk placing his hands on his wig covered ears and head for better airflow and the upperclassmen giggled continuing on to wherever she was going. When the upperclassmen was out of sight Kyle let go of his smile for a neutrally calm expression.

 _I should be getting back soon,_ Kyle thought looking at his watch finding it at 06:45.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Cafeteria…**

 **Time: 07:20**

Kyle walked into the cafeteria wearing his usual combat clothes consisting of an unzipped black leather jacket that stretched down to his knees, brown padded combat gloves, a white t-shirt, a pair of blue jeans and black steel toed boots. Onyx was paddling along side Kyle smelling at the air with hunger in his big green eyes.

"You hungry bud?" Kyle asked the wolf prowling the cafeteria to the food line.

"Excuse me but do you happen to have any spare meat for my friend here do you?" Kyle asked the cook as he took his tray and pointed down to a very hungry Onyx.

"I'll see what I can do kid," the cook said walking into the back room and returning with a bowl with chunks of meat in it setting it down, "will this do?"

"Yes, thank you," Kyle said taking the bowl and his tray. Kyle chose to sit well away from anyone in the cafeteria as to not draw any attention to himself as Kyle and Onyx dug into their food.

"Mind if I sit here?" Kyle heard an ominously familiar voice ask.

"Depends on who's asking," Kyle said making eye contact with Blake Belladonna automatically crossing his arms as she sat down in front of him.

"You're a site for sore eyes it's nice to see you again Kyle," Blake said with a slight smile.

"Oh really?" Kyle said with a heavy dose of sarcasm in his voice arching an eyebrow at Blake.

"Kyle I'm sorry for what I did back then," Blake said with a heavily sorrowful tone in her voice, "I shouldn't have done that."

"Done what? All you did was abandon my incapacitated and wounded body in a dark cave in a Grimm infested forest without even a goodbye or explanation why you left so I don't see why I'd be mad about that," Kyle said with an overly calm demeanor like he's compensating for something as he took a sip from his orange juice.

"Kyle please I'm trying to make amends for what I did to you," Blake pleaded her bow twitching a little bit.

"You really do?" Blake nodded pleadingly, "then answer me this one question and if I like the answer then all's forgiven," Kyle said giving Blake a calculated look, "deal?"

"Deal," Blake agreed, "what is it."

"Why did you do it?" Kyle said mournfully his expression changing from anger to one of the picture of a broken man and Onyx sensed Kyle's greef and sat his head on Kyle's lap whining his ears folding back against his head as he tried to comfort Kyle to the best of his abilities, "I thought you died Blake… I thought lost my last friend the only person left from the happiest point in my life."

"Oh Kyle I'm so sorry I thought it would be best to split away a group is easier to find than two separate targets… you're my best friend the last one I had left too I wanted to protect you," Blake stated tears threatening to fall from both Blake's and Kyle's eyes one from greef and the other from watching as her friend let everything out, "I never ever meant to hurt you the way I did… I just wanted to keep you safe."

Kyle sat there looking at Blake on the verge of tears his expression a mixture of shock and disbelieve. "Kyle please give me something," Blake pleaded in a small voice lowering her head forcing her gaze away from his judging silver eyes laying her hands on the table folded together.

"It's a start," Kyle said laying his free hand on her folded hands and giving a light squeeze, "I'm going to need time but you're forgiven old friend if you need anything I'm here just like old times." Blake smiled and grabbed his hand in hers holding it tenderly as she turned her head back up toward him finding Kyle smiling warmly at her.

"Okay I'd like that," Blake said and jumped as something brushed against her stocking clad leg, "what was that?"

"Oh the day you left me to fend for myself I found this little guy without a pack so I'm taking care of him until he decides to leave me to find his own pack or if he stays he's a permanent addition to my family and I've named him Onyx," Kyle stated as Onyx poked Blake with his snout smelling her.

"What's he doing," Blake asked turning stiff as a board as her cat instincts kicked in.

"He's getting acquainted with you," Kyle said taking another bite of his breakfast.

"And that means?" Blake asked carefully looking down at the young wolf sniffing around her at the table.

"He's getting your sent so he knows you're not a threat," Kyle said looking Blake over with a cocky grin, "what are you scared of a little wolf?"

"W-what? No," Blake defended her cheeks turning crimson in embarrassment, "how are your instincts not kicking in when you're around this wolf?"

"I don't know maybe I can control my instincts better than you can," Kyle laughed at Blake's expression toward his comment before being kicked in the shin.

"All freshmen report to the weapons lockers and then to the eastern cliff," Glynda's voice boomed over the intercom in the cafeteria and students started filing out in droves.

"Well duty calls I'll see you at the cliff," Kyle said whistling as he stood up patting Blake on the arm as he and Onyx walked out of the cafeteria feeling something strange stir in his gut but passed it off as first day jitters.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Cliff...**

 **Time: 07:45…**

Kyle stood with the rest of the first years and Onyx rechecking over his combat gear for the fifth time in ten minutes before stopping at the sight of Glynda and Ozpin walking up and inspecting the class that has seemed to have gotten smaller between last night and this morning.

 _What in the world happened to the rest of the class it seems to have been cut in half,_ Kyle thought looking around before giving his full attention to the instructors as others did to.

"For years you have trained to become warriors and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald forest," Ozpin stated taking a sip from his coffee mug directed the attention to Glynda.

"Now I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams," Glynda stated as Kyle found Blake looking at him from about three people down before sending their attention back to Goodwitch, "well allow us to put an end to your confusion, each of you will be given teammates... today."

 _And the catch in three… two… one,_ Kyle thought frowning as the headmaster continued where Glynda left off.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon so it is within your best interests to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin lectured waving his cup toward the students in front of him, "that being said the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

 _But there's an odd number here,_ Kyle thought counting every student in line.

"After you've partnered up make your way to the northern end of the forest, you will meet opposition along the way do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die," Ozpin warned with an air of cool calculation that said that it has happened before causing a small shiver to go down Kyle's spine, "you will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple containing several relics."

 _His cane is missing maybe that's one of them,_ Kyle thought looking the headmaster over quizzically squinting at him.

"Each pair must choose _one_ and return to the top of the cliff, we will regard that item as well as your standing and grade appropriately," Ozpin finished instructing, "any questions?"

"I've got one why is there an odd number of students here today sir or am I just miss counting?" Kyle said looking the headmaster in the eye.

"Very observant of you mister Kyle," Ozpin said with a proud almost strange smile, "well it is because a large number of students had to be expelled do to their preferred after hours _activities_."

"Onyx stay," Kyle ordered and the wolf sat down looking up at Kyle with confused eyes, "well I can't risk you out there so if I'm not back by sun down come drag me out of the woods got it?" Kyle rubbed Onyx's head in a show of good faith before flipping his hood over his head and bending his knees being launched high into the sky with all the other students.

"Well it looks like he's made a very loyal friend hasn't he?" Glynda gestured over to Onyx sitting patiently his ears twitching and tail swaying slowly side to side as he tracked Kyle's flight pattern.

"That he has," Ozpin agreed sipping from his mug with a smile.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Deep in the Emerald Forest…**

 **Time: 08:00…**

Kyle was spinning in the air for what felt like an eternity before stabilizing in the air with his arms and legs stretched out in spread eagle as he started falling toward the tree line his hood coming off in the process of the spin but thankfully his wig stayed in place.

 _Three… two… one,_ Kyle unsheathed his sword pressing the button in the grip to make the two blades of _Mau Maka_ detach from each other so he could hold his swords in both hands in a reverse grip stabbing them through a tree branch to stop himself from splattering into the ground as Yang flew over his head using shotgun shells to keep airborne almost taking off his head with a round.

"Hey watch where you're shooting those things!" Kyle yelled but Yang was already too far away to hear him. Kyle flipped up to land on the tree limb he stabbed pulling _Mau Maka_ out of the limb as he did so.

 _Let's see if anyone's close by,_ Kyle thought pooling his aura through his hand and into the tree when he set it pom down on the trunk forcing his aura out through it catching eight aura signs that were close by but all already teamed up.

 _Fuck guess I'm alone out here_ , Kyle thought hopping out of the tree and rolling to his feet to spread out the impacted from hitting the ground.

 _Sense s teammate is out of question I believe the ruins were on the left when I was still flying,_ Kyle thought and planned as he moved along a hunting trail until he heard two female voices bickering not that far off do to his heightened Faunus hearing before an explosion rang out.

 _That can't be good,_ Kyle thought breaking out at a sprint toward a pillar of smoke to find himself standing in a burning clearing a rather large pack or two of beowulf's standing at the burning side in one huge pile of black fur and white masks with Kyle blocking their only exit looking at him hungrily.

 _By the gods,_ Kyle thought grabbing _Mau Maka_ from his hip splitting them apart and fastening both hilts together to form a sword with a blade on each end of the overly extended hilt twirling it like it was nothing. This pattern of Kyle's sword increased his range in close combat allowing him to make deadly precise finishing blows, when in very close proximity with a large group of hostiles he could take droves of them out with the sipple swirl of his wrists Kyle also used this to disorient single combat target his. Kyle also uses a twin sword fighting style when he feels threatened enough to do so or if he wanted to get the job done faster, but in this case he felt like playing with these Grimm before finishing them off completely. The Grimm howled as they charged at Kyle furiously as Kyle charged yelling with silver eyes shining bright like a miniature sun sprouted in his eyes causing some of the Grimm to disperse and the rest to be hacked to pieces. In the blink of an eye Kyle had cut a twenty foot wide gap all the way through the large pack of Grimm sending those smart enough scattering which was oddly a lot of them leaving only fifteen Beowulf's holding their ground against Kyle who soon enough returned _Mau Maka_ to it's single bladed form and threw his combat knife at one sinking the blade deep into the Grimm's temporal lobe causing it to hit the ground hard and the rests of it's brothers to howl in anger and charge Kyle each one of the charging Grimm either getting hacked in half, decapitated or shish kabobed by Kyle's unflinching resolve and unchecked speed with his weapons.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Cliff…**

 **Time 09:00…**

Glynda and Ozpin are standing on the cliff edge overseeing how the students are going along, "All pairs have been formed, sir, except for mister Kyle he's making his way alone to the relics," Glynda informed Ozpin.

"Is there anyone to team him with?" Ozpin asked calmly looking over the forest where some minor skirmishes could be heard where students advanced to either the relic location or on their ways back to the cliff.

"No but I've found something you might want to see," Glynda stated showing the slaughter of a large pack of Grimm by Kyle with his eyes channeling a very bright silver light.

"He's been unlocked," Ozpin said a little bit startled by what the footage showed, "looks like it's time to reconstitute single person teams."

"Yes it would be a shame to let a _Guardian_ of this caliber go unnoticed and with the _queenpin_ out there somewhere he won't be safe," Glynda agreed as they both returned their attention to the rest of the students.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Emerald Forest…**

 **Time: 10:00…**

Kyle sighed as he continued on the hunting path his hands in his coat pockets his head drooping in boredom.

"Yo Kyle over here!" Kyle heard Yang yell from behind him causing to stop and turn to see Yang waving as she approached followed by Blake on her left side.

"Hey what are you two doing here?" Kyle asked as they stopped in front of him.

"Oh you know taking a stroll down an old path before running into you handsome," Yang winked at Kyle, "where's your team member? Has he gone and hid because he's nervous of a couple of cute girls?"

"No I don't have a partner I've been on my own for quite some time now," Kyle said folding his arms and looking at Blake with a look that said 'this is your partner?' as Blake returned saying 'not my fault.'

"Hello~? Remnant to Kyle and Blake come in Kyle and Blake," Yang said waving her hands slowly in front of Kyle's and Blake's faces knocking them out of what she perceived as a staring contest between the two dark clothed people.

"What, Yang?" Kyle and Blake asked simultaneously directing their gazes to the blonde brawler.

"I as I was saying shouldn't we get a move on before Grimm come along to eat us or are you two just going to stare at each other all day long?" Yang said tapping her foot on the ground.

"Yeah let's keep moving," Kyle said as he turned and started walking along the path again.

"So Blakey are you and the 'lone wolf' dating or something?" Yang whispered to Blake pointing with her thumb at Kyle as they kept walking along the path.

"What no we're just really old friends that's all," Blake blirted out as her cheeks turned crimson.

"So he's single," Yang asked with a glint in her eye with a wide grin plastered on her face.

"Yeah I'd guess so," Blake said solemnly as she looked at Kyle leading them through the forest at a strict and fast pace unnoticing Yang's wide grin turn into a simple gleefully happy smile.

"Hey girls I found it," Kyle said waving them over pushing away a bush to show a crumbled ruin with a long row of pedestals arrayed in a circle.

"Cool," Yang said as she followed with a skip in her step as they walked into the clearing.

"They're chess pieces?" Kyle stated befuddled by what the relics were supposed to be looking around a the pedestals.

"Yeah this is strange," Yang said stopping at a knight piece.

"I guess we'll have to pick one," Blake said folding her arms over her chest.

 _There has to be something about these pieces like a test,_ Kyle thought grabbing the only single piece a white king piece that seemed to emanate a soft yellow glow to it and placed it in his pocket.

"Yang, Blake I'm going to scout out a little further and see if this is the write place," Kyle said walking off the ruin.

"Okay would you like some company as you search?" Yang called after Kyle starting to walk after him.

"No I'm good you two decide which piece to grab," Kyle said waving heYang off, "I'll catch you two in a bit."

Kyle started walking off again clutching the strange king piece in his pocket as a translucent yellow line of dust appeared and started heading toward the tree line.

 _Well that's new,_ Kye thought following the yellow trail deeper into the forest until he came across a dark hatch in the ground.

"What the hell is this?" Kyle asked himself running his fingers over the runes on the dark metal hatch. Kyle examined it a little bit more unable to find an opening hatch in it thinking about blowing a hole in it using his aura before screams and gunfire came from the way he came causing him to jump and run off after the sounds thinking the worst has happened to the others. When Kyle got back he saw a Deathstalker trapped in ice a Nevermore circling above Yang and Blake accompanied by Jaune, _Weiss Shnee_ and Ruby along with three others he didn't know. One wore brown leather high heeled boots with a gold trim, bronze armor about her legs up to about three fourths the way up her thigh, a brown miniskirt cover over by a bright red sash, a light brown leather corset covered her chest modestly with a gold colored stripe down the middle of it, both her arms had elbow high brown gloves while her left arm supported bronze forearm armor and a bronze bracelet over her right bicep just above the gloves. She also sported a bronze head piece in her bright red hair that reached down to the small of her back in a ponytail. Another a male with black hair with a pink stripe running through it wearing a traditional green and black temple monk top with pink at the ends of his sleeves and gold embroidering the outlines between each color, white khaki pants, and black dress shoes. The final a rambunctious girl with short orange hair wearing a black and silver vest over a white blouse with a heart in its center just above her breasts, cut off white sleeves are on her arms with pink fingerless gloves, with a pink and white knee length skirt and white boots with pink laces.

 _What did I miss?_ Kyle thought emerging from the tree line.

"Kyle get over here we're leaving," Yang called out spottin Kyle first as he came out of the tree line.

"What happened Kyle asked hiking his finger behind his shoulder toward the Deathstalker trapped in ice.

"Long story," Blake said with a slight grin as howling came out of the forest.

"That's not good," Jaune stated gulping, "who brought Beowulf's?"

"That was me," Kyle paused for a second his face hard as stone, "you guys get moving I'll meet you all at the cliff."

"What?" everyone asked at once except for the green and white clad guy, the Spartan and the Shnee.

"Look someone has to draw the Beowulfs away, you guys can handle the other two larger Grimm while I take care of the smaller ones," Kyle said folding his arms stubbornly.

"He's right if he's able to lure the ones that are more numerous away we might have a chance of taking care of the Deathstalker and the Nevermore without being overwhelmed by the packs of small Grimm coming in from the sides of behind," Weiss said with a long sigh.

"Well good luck lone ranger because if you die out there I will kill you," Yang said patting Kyle's shoulder playfully with a rueful smirk.

"Same with you goldy locks," Kyle said shaking in amusement before he ran off into the woods at a full aura enhanced sprint.

It didn't take long to find the Beowulf pack and distract it before long. Kyle lopped off the head of the last Grimm with a quick two handed strike clearing the area quickly with heavy breathing as he looked at his scroll finding it a razors edge away from fall into the red when he was finally clear of Grimm.

"That was fun," Kyle said to himself as he sheathed _Mau Maka_ and started off back toward the cliff.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Auditorium…**

 **Time: 16:05…**

Kyle waited in the back of the room against a far wall next to the door as the the teams were formed with Onyx sitting quietly next to him. He was the first one called up thinking he was going to be assigned to a team down a member or be kicked out but instead he was assigned as a solo team with all the same perks as any other team was allowed to have. His team name was KO since Onyx was technically staying at the school with Kyle.

 _I guess we got lucky_ , Kyle thought as he lugged his personal bag and school bag through the hallways of the first year dormitories heading toward his designated dorm room _557_ as it was numbered with the activation key programed in his scroll.

"This is going to be a fun year right Onyx?" Kyle asked the wolf next to him whom gave a yawn causing Kyle to chuckle, "yeah you can repeat that again bud."

Kyle walked into his room setting his bags down next to the door as he closed it and fell onto his bed. _This is going to be interesting,_ Kyle thought as he faded from consciousness.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **There you go guys I hope you all enjoyed this chapter don't forget to follow and review…**

 **Iron Warriors signing out…**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello everyone hope you all enjoyed your holidays and let's have a happy welcome to 2017. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile I've been testing out the new stuff I got this holiday, getting back to school and dialog chapters are a little harder for me to write and it sort of slipped my mind.**

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Dormitory…**

 **Time: 07:00…**

Kyle sat at his room desk with his wig removed and lying beside his left on the desk showing his cat Faunus heritage to the empty room. He let Onyx out to the forest about an hour before hand so the wolf wouldn't mess with anything and also so the wolf can hunt freely. Kyle was going over his class schedule with bloodshot eyes having woken up three hours beforehand do to a half forgotten dream and hasn't been able to sleep since.

 _That's all the classes I've got today mapped out,_ Kyle thought as he stashed the schedule back into his bag and pulled out his scroll opening it to his photo gallery containing pictures from almost the ten years of his life with the White Fang, _Adam_ and Blake. It was a time where Kyle felt safest, when he thought he was doing the right thing, where he felt at home with an actual family.

 _What am I even doing any more?_ Kyle asked himself laying his head in his hands with his cat ears flattening to the top of his head as a beeping sound went off on his scroll signaling it as time to go.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Cafeteria…**

 **Time: 12:00…**

Kyle sat in a more or less secluded area of the Beacon cafeteria picking at his food with an exhausted expression slowly but surely closing his eyes.

"Hello," an orange haired girl by the name of Nora song out sitting across from Kyle with a very bright smile startling Kyle and causing him to sit up ramrod straight looking around him to find the before mentioned Nora along with Lie Ren, Jaune and Pyrrha to either side of her and Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang looking at him with a mixture of confused and concerned looks or in Weiss' case board and slightly agitated look which kind of made him feel awkward about being in this situation.

 _Fuck how long have they been there?_ Kyle asked himself as he rubbed his eyes to stay awake.

"Hey how long have you guys been there?" Kyle asked the two teams turning his bloodshot gaze back toward them.

"Five minutes," Weiss said with a heavily agitated tone.

"Kyle did you even sleep at all last night?" Blake asked with a concerned look in her gold eyes.

"Yeah I did," Kyle sighed, "it's just I'm feeling the effects of fighting that many Grimm in one day is all… I'm fine trust me."

"If you say so," Yang said, "now back to the main topic Kyle what do you think about Professor Port's class? The rest of us seem to think it's a waste of time."

"Well it's hard to say Port is a wild card but his "lessons" from my point of view is like he's teaching us all patients because sometimes hunters might be hunting a specific Grimm type for months on end or be unable to find a steady stream of combat level jobs and also he does teach us the weak points in Grimm," Kyle stated intertwining his fingers and perching his elbows on the table his silver eyes sharpening as he looks at the two teams as he thought about the old bushy mustached Professor, "or it's like you all think he's just a washed up hunter way passed his prime, reliving his old days from the field by telling it to his students, but it could be taken a multitude of ways with no correct answer. That man is oddly unpredictable so I'd rather not be on his bad side until more is explained on the old man so just let him be."

"Wow it sounds like someone's not very trusting," Yang commented looking down the table at Kyle.

"I've learned the hard way when it comes to how fast people's motives change and yeah it's made it hard to trust people on a personal level," Kyle said as his jaw tightened. The group went silent for a couple moments before the bell rang for the students to return to their classes.

"We'll see to you later Kyle maybe after you've had a nap," Yang said patting Kyle on the back as both teams moved out of the cafeteria with Blake giving Kyle one last worried look before walking out the door.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Kyle's dorm room…**

 **Time: 16:00…**

Kyle loosened his school uniform tie as he walked into his room slinging his bag down next to the door as he closed said door locking it. _It's okay Kyle you're still alive day's over,_ Kyle mentally told himself as he sat cross legged on the ground closing his eyes taking in deep breaths calming his nerves as he started glowing with silverlight and sparks of baby blue electricity lashed out from his body giving Kyle a sense of peaceful tranquility. Kyle slowly spread his aura out allowing him to detect every single aura filled creacher at least within the dormitory.

"Kyle?" Kyle heard someone say from the other side of the door knocking him out of his meditation with a groan of annoyance.

"Yeah I'm coming," Kyle called out standing up and opening his door to see Blake standing in the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Kyle asked folding his arms across his chest.

"Can we talk?" Blake asked

"Yeah come on in," Kyle said stepping aside for Blake as she passed him and into the dark room.

"Cosy," Blake commented noticing a scorch mark on a bedpost and an unpacked bag in the room.

"Well if I knew I was getting company today I would have cleaned up a little," Kyle said with a smile closing the door again and removing his wig allowing his cat ears to show from underneath.

"I thought you were good at detecting aura Kyle," Blake snorted in amusement.

"Yeah… yeah, oh by the way love what you've done with your hair," Kyle said leaning against the wall looking at Blake's lightly twitching bow, "have you told your team yet?"

"No are you crazy I have the Shnee heiress on my team," Bake said in shock turning to Kyle with anger in her eyes.

"I know, Blake but teams need to be able to trust each other to survive you know that more than most people… we both do," Kyle said with a sympathetic look.

"But there's a Shnee on my team, Kyle…" Blake tried to argue but Kyle stopped her by holding up a hand peacefully.

"Yes I know that, Blake but wouldn't it be better to tell them on your own terms then waiting for that heiress to say something that sets you off?" Kyle asked with a calculated expression, "you wouldn't need to tell them about the White Fang per say or do it now but at least tell them that you're a Faunus so it doesn't lead to something drastic in the long run. Hell I've got more bad blood between me and the Shnee family than any Faunus on Remnant."

"You're right but," Blake squinted at Kyle, "when I do you will be there and you will tell them too."

"Deal," Kyle said, "but why since I've already volunteered for this?"

"Well if I'm going down I'm not going alone," Blake's mouth twisted into a frown and her bow tried to flatten against her head, "and Yang's got you in her cross hairs."

"Am I really that unlucky?" Kyle sighed, "and how did you happen to come by this info because the last time I checked you weren't a telepath?"

"Well it's quite obvious actually that she has an interest in you and she had the audacity to ask me if you were single or not once figuring out that I knew you," _and it's making me angry and I don't know why!_ Blake huffed slightly frustrated but kept that last part to herself.

"Be careful now, Blake you sound just a bit jealous about this whole thing," Kyle warned trying to calm her down.

"I am not jealous you're my best and oldest friend here Kyle practically family," Blake yelled her cheeks turning a slight shade of pink as she slammed her heel on the ground.

"Yeah sure~," Kyle said shaking his head with a snort with his ears flicking side to side, "while we're on the talk of family have you contacted your parents told them what happened and where you are?"

"I've told them where I am but I haven't told him what happened or why I left," Kyle's brow frowned at this, "you know my father has faith for the White Fang movement hell he practically made the original White Fang…"

"And you're afraid that if he finds out he might be in danger?" Kyle interrupted and from the look on Blake's face Kyle hit the target spot on.

"But they are doing fine they actually asked about you doesn't seem like you've had any contact with them in a long time and they're worried," Blake said arching an eyebrow at Kyle questioningly.

"Well I've been kind of off the grid I only have a scroll to keep an eye on my aura," Kyle sighed.

"That's it?" Blake said through gritted teeth not believing Kyle's excuse.

"Fine you want the truth, it's because I feared that I'd put them in danger if I contacted them and I thought if I kept my distance I was keeping them safe," Kyle said with venom in his voice with lightning sparking across his hands, "I was going to do the same for you once I saw you the day I got here," Kyle shook in anger lightning tendrils sparking across his body.

"Kyle calm down it's okay everything's okay," Blake said as a lightning bolt zoomed passed her head as she quickly found a way to change the subject, "when have you been able to summon lightning without a conduit?" This question catching Kyle off guard and slowly causing his anger to dissipate along with the lightning coursing along his body.

"Well it has been a while since we last met and I've been practicing and meditating to harness my power effectively without anything but my will to harness my semblance but I barely use it anyway," Kyle explained as he held up his pointer finger and thumb allowing a bolt of lightning to coarse between them in a circle, "I still have that problem with my anger that makes my semblance go haywire."

"Well I should go get to studying for the assignment Professor Oobleck gave us today you want to tag along?" Blake asked with an almost pleading look.

"Sure that sounds nice, Onyx won't be back for awhile anyway I'll just leave the window open for him," Kyle said cracking the window putting his wig back on his head hiding his ears and grabbing his book bag back off the ground next to the door before opening the door, "oh and by the way you don't have to worry about Yang she's not my type."

"Then what is your type of girl," Blake asked following Kyle through the hall.

"I haven't really thought about it actually," Kyle said tapping his chin in thought, "I don't know."

"That doesn't really answer my question," Blake said.

"Hey it's the truth really I swear my life on it," Kyle said crossing over his heart with his free hand that's not holding his book bag as Blake rolled her eyes in amusement.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Library…**

 **Time: 20:00…**

"Come on Blake dogs and wolves aren't monsters," Kyle argued as he tried keeping a straight face at the way Blake is acting over the simple statement about fifty minutes beforehand after working together to finish the assignments they had from class that morning 'dogs aren't all that bad' which lead to an overheated flushed fight from Blake's end and an hilarious show for Kyle's.

"Oh really do you even remember my tenth birthday?" Blake stated crossing her arms in frustration recalling the day she started hating dogs.

"Yeah I do me and Adam lead a cute little puppy into... your parents... house..." Kyle started but trailed off as he saw Blake's reaction to what he said knowing full well who she was thinking of, "you miss him don't you?"

"Yes… I miss him... the old him before he became the thing he is now," Blake said hanging her head in sadness as Kyle traded his seat to sit next to her and wrap his arm around her shoulders to try and comfort her causing her to tense up at first at the touch but slowly lean into it feeling just a slight bit better and warm.

"It's okay, Blake if you need anything, if you just need to vent or you just want to hang out my door's open like old times," Kyle said in a quiet voice only Blake's Faunus traits could pick up on. Back in the day when Kyle and Bake were younger, back when they were in the White Fang they would sit together and talk for hours sometimes about each other's problems, politics and even the occasional venting about parents or about the organization. Both hidden Faunus not noticing as Yang spied on them from behind a bookcase with a shocked expression at the sight of Blake being held by Kyle in such a manner.

"Thank you Kyle…" Blake said enjoying the warmth of her oldest friend, "I'll tell them tomorrow... c-could you be there and you know help if I get any heat from any of them especially you know who?"

"Yeah I'll be there I wouldn't want to miss the look on their faces either," Kyle said with a light chuckle, "and besides what kind of friend would I be if I left you hanging like a wet noodle?" This teasing question being responded by a firm punch to the gut.

"I'm not going to live that one down am I?" Blake asked sighing and knowing the answer.

"Not for a while no," Kyle responded letting go of Blake to rub the soor spot on his person while laughing, as Yang snuck away as silently as possible thinking about what she just witnessed.

" _Attention all students curfew in half an hour finish up your activities and return to you dorms,"_ Glynda's voice came over the speakers in a warning tone.

"Sounds like we better get some food and to bed right?" Kyle stated as more of a statement than question.

"Yeah," Blake said a little forlornly.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Again sorry this took so long and that it's not as long as the other chapters but noncombat chapters take a little more time for me since it's manly dialog and character building which means this chapter was harder to write compared to anything else.**

 **To those of you that think Blake might be a little OOC here well this is a AU where she has had more than just Adam and her parents to be close to in the White Fang and since one of the people from her past that made her life happier is with her at Beacon from my personal thoughts on this it would make her a slightly happier character over all.**

 **Don't forget to follow and review.**

 **This is Iron Warriors signing out...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello everyone I'm not dead well not yet anyways, but moving on. Sorry for the absence I've hit more than a few snags in real life which forced me to push this chapter to the back burner so I can focus on the threats to my future health but I'm back now... I think?**

 **Location: Beacon Dorms…**

 **Time: 22:00…**

 **Team RWBY**

Blake walked down the hallway heading back to her team dorm room with the first peaceful and pleasant smile with the slightest hint of a sway in her hips anyone has seen in Beacon.

"Blake," Weiss said politely as she came walking up behind the Faunus her.

"Weiss," Blake said holding up her smile as they walked beside each other noticing the more calm in Weiss then earlier that day in class, "you seem to be in a better mood than this morning what happened?"

"You could say someone opened my eyes today over the whole Ruby as team leader thing," Weiss said solemnly as she opened the door to the team's room.

"So, Blakey how did it go?" Yang asked from her bunk as Blake walked into the room.

"How did what go?" Blake asked tilting her head to the side in confusion at Yang's question.

"Oh don't play coy with me," Yang said looking over to Ruby, "that's the right word for it right?"

Ruby looked down at a book on her bed from the thickness of it, it looked like a dictionary, "um, yeah I think so." This causing Blake to roll her eyes.

"Seriously now Yang what are you talking about?" Blake asked crossing her arms and looking at her blonde partner in annoyance at ruining her good mood causing both sisters to look at each other in slight shock.

"Well I saw you~ in Kyle's arms in the library, I also saw you two eating together in the cafeteria and that spark of happiness you had when you walked in was a clear give away," Yang counted her fingers off causing Blake to flush in anger with her ears twitching ever so slightly as Yang continued to teasingly accuse Blake on her hundred percent false "love life" with Kyle.

Weiss picked up on this quickly and backed off to the nearest wall trying to stay out of the blast radius of the unstoppable "Blake bomb". Ruby noticing Weiss step to a safe distance away pulled down her little sheet wall from atop her bunk shielding away from the backlash Blake is about Yang's attempt at harmless teasing. But both Weiss and Ruby couldn't help thinking about Blake's mood when she was walking through the hall earlier.

 _If this is true then Blake and Kyle are very good about concealing their personal relationship from everyone or they are more dense than Jaune is about Pyrrha_ , Weiss thought as the timer ticked down.

"Yang, who do you think you are talking about people's love lives?" Blake asked with a glare that seemed to burn into Yang causing the blonde bombshell to flinch, "let me get this clear me and Kyle are not a thing so drop it and the next time I catch you spying on me I'm going to personally shave you bald."

"You wouldn't dare," Yang said in shock grabbing ahold of her long golden hair protectively causing Weiss to get a slight nudge of a smile and Ruby to slightly snicker out of earshot.

"Oh I will," Blake took a deep breath calming herself, "now I'm going to get ready for bed." Blake walked into the bathroom calmly.

"So did you guys bye any of that?" Yang whispered to Ruby and Weiss receiving silent "no's" from them.

 **Kyle**

Kyle walked into his room scratching under his uniform dress shirt collar at a three pronged scar on that he received from a beowulf about four or so years ago to find Onyx his large black wolf laying down on the ground gnawing on a dog bone happily with his tail wagging back and forth slowly.

"Hey bud looks like you're having fun where did you get that?" Kyle said patting Onyx's head before noticing a note on his desk along with the window wide open. Kyle looked out the window slightly confused finding nothing but open land.

 _Strang,_ Kyle thought as he closed the window and picked up the note reading it:

 _I saw him wandering around campus. I think he's yours so I got him back before the staff could throw him out._

 _-a friend_

 _P.S. Your welcome._

Kyle shrugged after reading it crumpling up the note and throwing the paper in the trash, finding no reason to keep said paper because it didn't have a name so he couldn't say thank you to the person that made sure Onyx got back to the dorms and it was just basic clutter now anyway.

Kyle quickly changed into his night clothes along with removing his wig and hopped into bed passing out immediately into the first full nights sleep he's had for a very long time.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Cafeteria…**

 **Time: 08:00…**

Kyle sat enjoying his plate of bacon, hashbrowns and eggs with a smile while holding back an animal like rumble in his chest.

"Yo, Kyle you got a second," Yang sat next to Kyle and nudged his arm and knocking him out of his food trance.

"Yeah what do you need, Yang?" Kyle asked looking over at Yang in confusion.

"I was wondering if you would like to go out to Vale with me this weekend?" Yang asked almost like it wasn't a big deal twirling a strand of hair on her finger as Kyle gave her a sideways look, "you know maybe hit the local club, grab a couple drinks get a bite to eat you know, Ruby can look after Onyx for a while she's good with animals."

"Yang, are you asking me out because if so that was fast or is this a joke," Kyle looked around to see if there was anyone watching them, "you're serious."

"Well I wasn't meaning it like that but if you want to it can be like that," Yang stated with a shit eating smirk as Kyle fell into her well worded trap, "so what do you say?"

"I don't know Yang," Kyle looked Yang up and down, "you're not my type."

"Then what is your type of girl. Is it her looks I've got that?" Yang said in false shock as she gestured to her body.

"It's not that, Yang. It has to do with their personality," Kyle shrugged, "it's how they react to certain situations and a little bit more modesty doesn't hurt either… looks? That's just a bonus."

"I… I see," Yang said with real shock, "so does anyone you know meet this criteria you've set up for the perfect girlfriend?"

Kyle didn't answer so Yang took that as a 'yes' and continued with her prodding seeing how far she could go before Kyle decided to hightail it out and away from Yang, "the only person I've seen you even have a deep relationship with is Blake so is she the one you're looking at?"

"Yang stop my love life doesn't concern you," Kyle pleaded in a small tone just enough for Yang to hear and it sounded mournful and agitated.

"Okay," Yang said a soft tone as well picking up on Kyle's attitude shift.

"Sorry I have to go I've got some work today before classes start," Kyle said wiping his face with a napkin before standing up, "talk later?"

"Yeah sure," Yang said as Kyle walked off.

 _Well I didn't hear a no,_ Yang thought with a shrug.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Training Ground…**

 **Time: 16:00…**

Kyle walked angrily onto the training ground fists clenched with Mau Maka on his hip. Kyle was currently here to let off some pent up frustration after being read so damned easily by Yang at breakfast and at himself for even letting those thoughts enter his head.

 _Who does she even think she is?_ Kyle thought as he punched in codes that created Grimm like constructs that had three level settings for the students to practice and refine in how to properly deal with and kill Grimm using weak spots. What Kyle liked about this form of training was that the constructs actively fought back and it hurt like the real thing which made it so that the teachers didn't really need to send students out to fight actual Grimm all the time to hone and deepen their crafts. Of course the constructs couldn't cause real damage to the fighter and they couldn't instill the fear every Grimm seemed to be able to use but it drained aura with every successful hit until the student's aura hit red like a tournament fight. So yeah this equipment had bugs to fix but it worked to at least help students blow off steam without hurting themselves.

 _Let's do this,_ Kyle thought pulling out Mau Maka while rolling his shoulders causing satisfying cracks to travel across Kyle's back as two Ursai and a medium pack of Creeps and Beowulf's appeared in front of him ready to attack. The two Ursai bellowed out challenges as they came charging up. The first to reach Kyle swung it's heavy paw at his chest but before the strike could meet its mark Kyle ducked under the over extended claw and swiftly jammed Mau Maka's twin blade into the constructs unprotected neck "killing" it within seconds as the last Ursai bellowed in rage causing the horde of Creeps and Beowulf's to enter the fight with one of the Beowulf's crumpling to the ground dissipating with Kyle's knife buried in it's forehead plate.

 _Come on Kyle stab, parry it's not that difficult,_ Kyle berated himself as he removed the head of a creep with one clean swipe of Mau Maka's blades and immediately swiping down to sever a Beowulf from right shoulder to left hip.

"RAHH!" Kyle screamed out in frustration with a shock wave of lightning leaving him to short circuit the whole electrical grid of the training room as he breathed heavily looking at the far wall with shock as he saw a rather large gash which looked as if a blade beam toor into it.

 _I… what the hell?_ Kyle didn't get enough time to ponder as his scroll's ringtone went off.

"Hello?" Kyle said still panting from the training he prematurely ended with an unintentional EMP blast.

" _Hey is everything okay?"_ Blake asked from the other line.

"No, no I'm fine, Blake, I just finished a workout is all… you need something?" Kyle asked wiping sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his free hand.

" _You forgot?"_ Blake said a little disheartened and Kyle immediately remembered all former thoughts being pushed to the back burner.

"Sorry I just had a lot of stuff on my plate is all I'll be there in a moment, I just need to wash off and get on some fresh clothes," Kyle said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Okay, see you in a little bit," Blake hung up leaving Kyle alone with his thoughts once again.

 _I could give Yang a chance it's not like anyone else gives a damn,_ Kyle thought to himself feeling a pain in his chest that felt familiar, natural and sad but Kyle didn't know why he felt this way as he walked back to the locker room to change into day clothes.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Dorms…**

 **Time: 17:23…**

"Sorry I'm late," Kyle said as Blake opened the door to her dorm finding the rest of her team sitting there bored out of their minds and trying to ward it off by tossing paper balls at each other or agitated like one Weiss Shnee.

"What's so important?" Yang asked as Kyle and Blake entered the room obviously Blake had gathered them here to tell them about their shared secret.

"W-we have something to show you... but it never leaves this room," Blake shot Yang a slight glare but Kyle couldn't see any malice in her golden eyes as she stared at Yang who nodded and pulled an invisible zipper over her mouth clarifying that it's locked away. Blake looked over to Kyle who nodded with a deep breath.

"Me and Kyle are Faunus," Blake said sending an anxious over to Weiss who was shocked at the news with a mixture of resentment in her eyes there.

"Wait, what is this a joke?" Ruby said with a twinkle in her eye that hoped Blake wasn't yanking her chain. To this question Blake's hands reached up to her bow slowly untying it and letting it fall exposing her slightly folded cat ears.

"Oh so that's why you wear that," Yang and Ruby said in unison.

"Wait so you're a cat Blake, then what are you Kyle?" Weiss asked squinting her eyes at Kyle, "because I don't see anything that even hints to you being any kind of Faunus."

"That's because I can't go around wearing a bow on my head I had to come up with something a bit more agitating to hide with," Kyle said giving Weiss a slight scowl as he grabbed what she thought was his hair only to be proven wrong by the head piece detaching showing fluffy cat ears standing tall like furry obelisks in a head of curly and unruly black hair. The most predominant thing that struck out about Kyle's ears was that there was a thin but very noticeable scar that on the left ear. Said scar stretched in a line from the middle of the ear to the outer edge that looked only to have been healed by time and not by aura almost looking to be deliberately held back from any form of medication to help the scar finish fading.

"Oh~ smart," Ruby said, "but why hide like this isn't it safe here?"

"Honestly, Ruby it's not safe anywhere for Faunus," Kyle said leaning against the door, "take team CRDL for example and there are others here and on this world…" Kyle shot a knowing look at Weiss.

"Then why tell us?" Weiss asked crossing her arms.

"Because Ice Queen if we tried keeping this between me and Blake at some point you will slip up on your politeness toward Faunus and resort back to your father's pre-programed way of thinking which would cause either me or Blake to let it out and everything would spiral downhill from there," Kyle said with venom when he said 'father'.

"Why do you hold so much resentment toward my family?" Weiss asked heatedly standing up with a scowl.

"It's not your family the Shnee's are a good people just look at your grandfather but your father is not a good man. He is evil, vile and cruel toward anyone but himself," Kyle said shaking his head.

"What... how dare you disrespect my father in..." Weiss tried to talk back to Kyle before being cut off with Kyle raising a finger.

"If I'm wrong then where did you get your scars from?" Kyle asked in a calm tone his silver eyes containing no judgement, hatred, anger or any other form of malic. It just a simple calm yet hard look that said 'you know I'm right' causing Weiss' stomach to twist at the harsh reality of what he had just called her out on as if he could see passed the mask her father had enforced upon her at birth and Weiss felt naked as Kyle awaited her answer with everyone else looking to her as well.

"So you are telling us this so there will be no CATastrophe in the future?" Yang said causing everyone in the room to flinch or in Ruby's case whine.

"Really, Yang? We've talked about this," Ruby said sighing with absolute pain covering her expression.

"Yeah and we still are since I bribe you with cookies to make you forget and come on I'm trying to lighten the mood," Yang defended while giggling, "by the way my puns are funny."

"No, Yang no they are not," Kyle, Blake, Weiss and Ruby said in unison while Kyle and Blake's ears twitched in annoyance and both Faunus eyes rolled.

"So that's all you wanted to tell us about?" Ruby lifted an eyebrow.

"For now pretty much yeah that's all," Kyle said running his fingers lightly through his own hair.

 _That went a lot better than I expected,_ Kyle thought releasing the breath he was unknowingly holding in.

"I have one last question why do you hold so much resentment against my father?" Weiss asked feeling a nagging pit in her stomach that said she shouldn't have asked that.

 _And there's the can of worms, he's showed up later than usual,_ Kyle thought looking to everyone in the room whom was looking straight at him awaiting an answer, n _ow I know why he's late he brought the big toys,_ Kyle's face twisted into a half hearted scowl do to the one secret that he's held to himself not even letting the closest people to him that even meant Blake and Adam the one person he held with such high regard and the other his lost brother.

 _Is he actually going to tell us?_ Blake thought never really seeing Kyle in this kind of crossroads throughout all the years she's been his friend. Usually when anyone in the White Fang asked this question including her, her father, mother and Adam to name a few would either get a polite response if you were someone that he respected of 'I'm sorry that portion of my life is something I'd rather leave dead and forgotten where it belongs' or if not you rewarded with silence and a stare that seemed to surpass Atlas during an ice age, but now he looked like he might tell.

Kyle closed his eyes and took a deep breath before focusing his gaze back to the four girls in front of him, _fuck it,_ Kyle thought before opening his mouth.

"Weiss no offence but that subject is dead and buried," Kyle said with an above average polite tone, "and has been since I was little I'd like to keep it that way."

 _Figures,_ Blake thought shaking her head.

"Well since you two are Faunus would you take offence if we ask some questions about Faunus stuff," Weiss asked figuring she'd get more answers out of Kyle over time and become closer teammates with Blake and that she also noticed Blake's quizzical look toward Kyle once she asked why he despised her father, "you know so we don't slip up and possibly make you guys angry at us?"

"Yeah it's not that big of a deal but we all might want to sit down first because I'm guessing you guys have a lot of questions," Kyle said grabbing a chair and placing it in the middle of the room.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Again sorry about the very prolonged leave of absence. Oh before I forget I have a new poll up so go check that out. Don't forget to follow and review I'd like to get criticism so I can correct the mistakes in the story and to also know if I'm doing a good job with this or not.**

 **Iron Warriors signing out...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yes I know this has been a long time coming but I've adapted a bit with this story so it's going to take a little longer time to complete each chapter but I think it's worth it.**

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: First Year Dorm Building Area…**

 **Time: 21:51…**

Kyle yawned scratching at a slight stubble showing on his cheeks and upper lip as he aimlessly wandered the halls on his way back to his dorm room passing some students coming back from late night study sessions, sparing or getting dinner. _This was one hell of a day,_ Kyle thought as his ears flicked under his wig and his scroll started buzzing telling him that a call was coming in.

"Hello?" Kyle said as he answered the call.

" _Mr. Kyle the headmaster has called you to his office,"_ the assistant headmistress said in an almost too formal of a tone.

"Yes professor Goodwitch I will be there momentarily," Kyle said hanging up thinking about why they didn't just put it through the intercom but thought it would just make things worse if he asked.

 _What's the worse that can happen? I've been shot at, stabbed and hell I've gone without proper supplies for months,_ Kyle thought to reassure himself as he ascended Beacon's CCT tower to the Headmaster's office but even so his blood pressure was high and the hairs on the back of his neck were sticking straight up. The door opened revealing the Headmaster sitting at his desk holding what looked like two envelopes with a blank expression on his face as he looked at Kyle causing Kyle to freeze in place. Jaune was also there looking like how Kyle felt.

"Headmaster?" Kyle asked feeling all the nerves in his body screaming at him to run now.

"Yes, take a seat we might be here a while," the Headmaster said, "and please call me 'Ozpin'." Kyle slowly approached the seats in front of Ozpin's desks, sitting in one.

"What is this about Head- I mean Ozpin?" Kyle asked.

"Well Mrs. Goodwitch has sought to inform me of both of your forged records," Ozpin said setting down the envelopes in front of Kyle and Jaune. While Jaune physically paled, Kyle picked his up quizzically.

"What gave me away?" Kyle asked as he looked at his transcripts to find everything in perfect order.

"Nothing really it's just the small complication of your past," Ozpin said pointing to his birth records, "we've checked all official records in all databases across Remnant and you don't show up in public records until you send your transcripts to us."

"Does this mean I'm going to be kicked out?" Kyle asked feeling his heart sink as he asked and seeing Jaune sink into his seat.

"No it does not you both passed initiation with flying colors so you and Mr. Arc are fine," Ozpin said sitting his glasses higher up on his nose, "it's just that we need to fix this in the system… oh and you can take the wig off now it's safe in here, no prying eyes and I know that wig is unbearable on the ears." Jaune perked up at this looking at Kyle with slight shock and curiosity.

"How… what… when?" Kyle asked in a stupor as he slowly removed the wig revealing his cat ears.

"You must learn Mr. Kyle I have ears everywhere I am the headmaster of this school after all," Ozpin said, "but back to what we were at earlier where exactly did you come from Kyle?"

"You really want to know?" Kyle asked.

"Well it's either that or I can do a full investigation of your past good and the bad," Ozpin threatened coolly, "but both of us know we don't want that." After that Kyle told the Headmaster all his past but choosing to leave the whole White Fang movement out instead choosing to say that he was raised up the rest of his life on Menagerie in an orphanarium.

"I see but there is one thing wrong with that tail," Ozpin said fixing his glasses, "the SDC doesn't have slaves it's been outlawed since the Great War."

"Yeah that was one of the agreements that was enforced after the war," Jaune added in.

"Yeah but up till now indentured servitude was not, but after I escaped that mine he freed everyone so the government of Atlas and press wouldn't hound down on the company," Kyle said leaning back in the chair folding his arms over his chest, "you know upholding the Shnee family legacy."

"True, now with that out of the way this news might be overwhelming but you said you never knew your parents correct?" Ozpin said typing on his scroll.

"Yes sir," Kyle said, "what news do you have?"

"I know who you are and who your parents are as well Mr. Argentum," Ozpin said with a smirk.

"Excuse me sir what did you just call me?" Kyle asked completely confused, _Argentum?_

"That's your last name," Ozpin said sitting back in his seat like he had just solved the biggest mystery of all time, "there are only two families that I have known of to have silver eyes, house Argentum and house Rose," Ozpin set a orange envelope on the desk, "read this, it should handle most of your questions you may have about your parents."

"So are we free to go because no offence but we do have classes in morning," Jaune stated.

"No offence taken Mr. Arc and yes you are both free," Ozpin said and Kyle and Jaune stood to walk out, "oh and Kyle, if you have in any question please come see me you know where to find me."

"Okay," Kyle said fitting his wig back on his head with a conflicted look on his face. Kyle and Jaune stepped back into the elevator and Jaune hit the ground floor button.

"So you're a Faunus?" Jaune asked as the lift descended.

"Yeah… none of that leaves this building got it," Kyle said as he tucked the orange envelope into his coat pocket.

"Yeah, don't have to tell me twice," Jaune said wiping his brow, "we're cool right?"

"Yeah, we're cool I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow Jaune I need some sleep," Kyle said yawning.

"Sounds good," Jaune said, "hey you think you can be my sparring partner?"

"Why don't you ask Pyrrha? She is your partner after all," Kyle asked leaning against the wall of the lift.

"Well she's a great fighter when it comes down to fighting people but you're at the top of the class in fighting Grimm and plus what I've seen from your weapons it's more flexible than anything Pyrrha has in her arsenal," Jaune pointed out before going pale, "don't tell her I said that."

"Sure I'll do it on one condition you also ask Pyrrha to help train as well," Kyle said, "you know mix things up a little."

"Deal, but why isn't a hunter's job to kill Grimm?" Jaune asked.

"There are more than just Grimm you will need to face as a hunter," Kyle stated looking back at his days as a White Fang member.

"I see," Jaune went silent after that for the rest of the trip down.

"See you tomorrow man," Kyle said lightly punching Jaune in the arm, "oh and your first sparring session starts after our classes are done tomorrow."

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Cafeteria…**

 **Time: 7:20…**

Kyle sat looking over the contents of the envelope with a grim expression while his friends Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake and Ruby talked about class, Nora talking about her dreams or in Yang's case making annoying puns.

 _Fuck my life is nothing ever simple_? Kyle sigh and shook his head in frustration.

"Hey Kyle what's wrong? You look a bit Grimm," Yang said with a cheeky smile.

"Yeah, what's wrong you seem... well not yourself," Blake stated.

Kyle tossed the contents of the envelope on the table in between the group.

"What is this?" Blake asked picking up one of the packets with everyone else following soon after.

"That is the records of my 'family house' everything the Headmaster gave me to everything I could pull off the internet," Kyle said leaning back in his seat preparing for a barrage of questions with a deep breath.

"Wait you're Vale royalty," Blake said skeptically setting down a packet.

"No, my family were one of the four high ranking lords of Vale's northern territories back before the war," Kyle stated slightly annoyed as he pointed at Jaune, "that is the face of royalty, the last descendant of the king of Vale believe it or not."

"WHAT!" everyone but Jaune and Kyle said at once looking at Jaune who shrunk in his seat muttering to himself.

"Well remember when I said that I come from a long family of heroes well that one ancestor was the cause of that," Jaune rubbed the back of his neck.

"That means Crocea Mors isn't just a hand-me-down it's the single most legendary and powerful weapon on Remnant made out of a form of steel that has been lost through the ages and can't be replicated even with modern technology… the yellow death," Ruby yelled out in excitement practically jumping out of her seat with sparkles in her silver eyes.

"Yeah… this is one of the reasons why I didn't tell you guys about my past in full extent," Jaune sighed, "it's hard enough having to live up to trying to being a hero."

"Wait I thought that the Lords of Vale were all human? No offence," Weiss asked in a hushed tone so people at other tables couldn't hear but the group could hear perfectly.

"Well things can change after so many generations," Kyle whispered back, "my mother was a Faunus and my father was human."

"What do you mean by was?" Blake asked.

"Says here that your mother was killed sixteen years ago and your father was labeled MIA a week later," Ren said placing down the packet he was reading.

"That is why I'm angry it doesn't say that he's dead so he could be out there doing who knows what and being who knows where," Kyle sighed holding his face in his hands, "or…"

"He could be dead in an unmarked grave," Ruby butted in her eyes downcast looking heartbroken.

"Ruby…" Yang said laying her hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"We both know it's true Yang and nothing's going to change that," Ruby said inhaling deeply and wiping her eyes.

"I guess at least most of us here bares personal scars," Kyle noted taking a sip of tea as he looked over the cafeteria whom were silent and looking at the nine of them, "what are you all looking at can't we talk in peace without you all butting in?" After that the cafeteria lit up with sound again.

"So Jaune did you ask Pyrrha yet?" Kyle asked.

"Ask me what," Pyrrha said her emerald eyes lighting up.

"Well I asked Kyle to being a sparring partner with me since we all know that I'm not the best guy in class at least with combat," Jaune scratched the back of his neck.

"And I agreed if you'd help him too because I know a lot when it comes to diverse opponents but he's going to need help fine tuning how to utilize the offense and defense of sword and shield fighting," Kyle said with a neutral expression.

"Yeah, what he said," Jaune stated looking at Pyrrha.

"I'd love to help," Pyrrha said excitedly.

"Great, then we'll meet in the training arena after our classes," Kyle said as the bell rang.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Training Facility…**

 **Time: 16:00…**

"Okay Jaune this is going to be a small spar so I can see where you're at in combat capability," Kyle said pulling out his long sword variant of Mau Maka. Pyrrha sat in the stands watching Jaune closely Kyle judged that Pyrrha was preparing to jot down mental notes while he and Jaune went through the spar. Onyx sat next to the righthand door to the arena his tail wagging back and forth five slow times before he stood on his four legs and howled to the skies signaling the match to begin.

"Alright I'm ready," Jaune said drawling Crocea Mors and extending his shield looking to be in a defensive stance. Kyle readied himself to charge Jaune when he took his first forward seeing a silver streak flash toward him causing Kyle to get hit and stagger back a step before shifting Mau Maka into it's two short swords variant, pairing the next upcoming strike with ease.

 _Smart move but you aren't getting away with that little trick even if you are my friend,_ Kyle grinned as he used his body mass to kick at Jaune's shield with both feet allowing him to flip off the shield a few yards while smacking Jaune in the jaw with his own defensive equipment.

"Come on Jaune hold your shield up higher or I'm not liable when I ring your head like a bell again," Kyle warned as Mau Maka lit up like a christmas tree with lightning flashes. Jaune saw this and went paler than Weiss. Kyle swung Mau Maka's twin short swords diagonally causing electric shock waves along with lightning arcs to fly toward Jaune who shrank and hid as much of himself as possible behind his shield before the lightning smashed into Jaune sending him flying across the room dropping both Crocea Mors and his shield on the ground as he impacted the far wall.

"That hurt," Jaune said standing up to find Kyle standing in front of him Mau Maka in pole sword form with one of the blades resting on his neck.

"Checkmate," Kyle said under his breath twirling Mau Maka to knock Jaune's feet from underneath him sending Jaune screaming to the ground with Mau Maka's blade resting against Jaune's throat.

"Stop how is this fare?" Pyrrha came running from the stands with anger burning in her eyes, "Jaune's been disarmed you can't just beat on him like that!"

"Tell me Pyrrha… is a Grimm or a criminal going to stop attacking just because your disarmed?" Kyle asked turning toward Pyrrha's fiery gaze without flinching thrusting one end Mau Maka's pole sword form into the ground beside him, "a hunter needs to assess the situation around them and fight with what they have even if that includes their fists this is not a tournament duel, Pyrrha. We're training to become the most deadly warriors of Remnant." Pyrrha's glare softened and she nodded with strain.

"Jaune, are you okay?" Pyrrha asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah I'm fine but this is going to hurt in the morning," Jaune laughed ruefully.

"You're a tough nut to crack Jaune though your swordplay can use some work," Kyle chuckled picking the battered blonde of the ground, "I think you and I are done for today, Pyrrha you have him tomorrow I'd suggest helping him with the fundamentals and get him an ice pack for tonight he's going to need it."

"Okay, can do," Pyrrha said holding Jaune by a shoulder as Kyle let go of him, " come on Jaune let's get you back to the dorm and rest."

"Oh before I forget next time you're practicing with me Jaune we're going to do some hand to hand work… Onyx let's go see you guys at dinner," Kyle said as he reformed Mau Maka into long sword form and sheathing it as he walks out of the training room with Onyx at his heels.

"I didn't go too hard on Jaune right Onyx?" Kyle asked the onyx black wolf following him and the wolf stayed silent, "of course you wouldn't care your race strives off of alfas... your no help at all." At this Onyx looks up at Kyle and nips at Kyle's heels. "Looks like someone's hyper I should let you out more often. Well come on let's run around and burn off your hyper little tail."

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Courtyard…**

 **Time: 17:00…**

Kyle sat under a tree with his back against the tree's trunk and a water bottle in hand as he watched Onyx roll around in the grass. _This feels almost peaceful,_ Kyle thought allowing a small smile to spread across his face.

"I thought you'd be out here," Blake said as she walked up with a book in hand.

"Well you know me the indoors are nice and all but being out here makes everything all that much better," Kyle said as Blake sat next to him cross legged.

"Heard you went hard on Jaune earlier in that spar," Blake said with a little concern.

"Hey I was holding back I didn't know Jaune had such little combat experience," Kyle defended, "no wonder he asked for help he's going to need it."

"Wow, more than just two emotions," Blake said flatly.

"What?" Kyle asked arching an eyebrow at his long time friend.

"I've just never seen this side of you before," Blake stated which only made Kyle even more confused, "I mean a genuine and not overbearing care for others not a side of you I see often."

"Well people can change when certain events happen," Kyle said looking away from Blake his bright silver eyes turning dull.

"Kyle are you okay you've seemed more down lately?" Blake asked placing a hand on Kyle's shoulder.

"I don't know Blake this school, finding out where exactly I came from and all these people that don't see the horrors out there is very off putting," Kyle took a deep breath, "I just need time to come to terms with everything and adjust to all this."

"I understand it's hard to readjust to this but you'll get there," Blake reassured Kyle, "why did you decide to become a hunter, Kyle?"

"Because… I need a sense of purpose and be able to defend people that can't do it themselves… it's hard to explain I'm just drawn to this kind of work," Kyle shrugged taking a sip from his water bottle, "plus the paycheck's nice… what about you?"

"Atone for what I helped do to people's lives and stop the White Fang," Blake said with a determined look toward the setting sun.

"That's good at least you weren't stalking me since we left the White Fang," Kyle said with a cheeky grin causing him to get smacked playfully on the back of the head, "hey what was that for?"

"You are such a dork," Blake shot back her cheeks flushed pink while laughing slightly.

"Hey ladies love dorks," Kyle defended getting him a sceptical look from Blake, "have you seen how Pyrrha acts around Jaune?"

"Point taken," Blake said after a second of thought, "but still that's no excuse."

"Toshay," Kyle said as Onyx walked back over to lay down between the two Faunus in the shade for a nap.

"I still can't believe your traits don't go haywire when he's around," Blake said hesitantly patting the wolf's head.

"You'll get used to it," Kyle stated.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Don't forget to review, follow and favorite…**

 **Iron Warriors signing off...**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well um… I've just gotten back from watching Logan and I can honestly say that it is the first movie to make me cry in years. Best movie ever… of all time…**

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Locker Room…**

 **Time: 16:11…**

 **Kyle**

Kyle closed his rocket locker securing Mau Maka in it's carrying case. It's been a week since starting Jaune's work out regiment. Pyrrha schooled Jaune in the fundamentals of using Crocea Mors while Kyle built Jaune's speed, strength and toughness through rough physical conditioning containing body weight workouts and fast paced short burst spars with weapons and hand to hand techniques.

"Well you're doing a lot better from our first time around," Kyle said turning to look at Jaune with an ice pack on his cheek.

"Really? I feel like I just got punched by Yang," Jaune said slightly appalled.

"Hey you got my aura to orange in that last spar, count that as a victory man," Kyle said sitting across from the beaten white knight, "it's a hell of a lot better than what you did during our first spar."

"You're right but still it hurts none the less," Jaune said rolling his shoulders with a few loud and most likely painful series of pops.

"Don't worry when your aura has reconstituted itself those bruises and cuts will heal without a mark on you," Kyle said to reassure Jaune, "trust me I've been through a hell of a lot worse and my aura's been able to pull through and heal what ever causes the damage."

"Really like what?" Jaune asked perking up a bit.

"Well there's-," Kyle froze with blood leaking from his nose and his silver eyes flashing like a strobe light.

"Um… Kyle, dude, are you okay?" Jaune said jumping up and shaking Kyle's shoulder as he slightly panicked in the situation followed by Kyle falling to the ground past out, "Kyle!"

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Unknown…**

 **Time: Unknown…**

" _Hello, anybody?!" Kyle called out into the black void confused as to how he got here and to where he was. He remembered being in Beacon's locker room not seconds earlier trying to instill confidence in one of his few male friends at Beacon. The void he was in contained no walls, no ceiling, not even an excuse for a floor under his feet but he could swear that he could feel something under his feet._

 _Kyle turned around hearing heels clacking on marble behind him coming face to face with a woman with brown hair, almond colored skin standing before him about a foot shorter than him wearing an autumn colored dress of reds, golds and oranges. The woman was staring at Kyle intently just a few feet away modestly standing outside Kyle's personal space._

" _Um… ma'am where are we?" Kyle attempted to talk to the woman._

" _That is a good question Guardian, right to the point," the woman said with a unorthodox yet warming smile, "my name is Amber and I'm the Fall Maiden."_

" _Fall Maiden, aren't those a fairy tale?" Kyle asked not believing the woman Amber in front of him._

" _It is a long story that your headmaster will tell you when the time comes," Amber stated in a calm calculated manner, "all you need to know is that this area is a place where active guardians and the Seasonal Maidens can communicate either in dire circumstances or long distance."_

 _Then which one is this?" Kyle asked folding his arms, "why did you bring me here?"_

" _Simple this is a dire circumstance, I need you to deliver this message to Ozpin for me when you're able to move," Amber said frowning, "the connection we are sharing is very strained and I might have caused some damage to your physical form."_

" _Okay what's the message?" Kyle said folding his arms._

" _Beware the light is fading, beware the dark returns, this world's unforgiving, even bright light will cease to burn," Amber's eyes glow a blinding orange before it all fades back to darkness._

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Infirmary…**

 **Time: 20:26…**

"Wait!" Kyle said waking up finding himself in a sterile white room and a couple balloons and flowers on a side table as the only color in it with his head throbbing like it was desperately trying to break out of his skull with a jack hammer as he tried desperately to sit up his Faunus cat ears folding back on his head.

"Mr. Argentum lay back down please you need to stay down and rest," a doctor in a white lab coat and purple tipped black hair said from a desk on the far wall.

"What happened, where am I?" Kyle demanded sitting up to full height, "I'm not laying back until I get answers."

"You were in a form of paralysis with a slight amount of internal bleeding across your body and aura draining fast you were lucky that Mr. Arc of team JNPR was there," the doctor said turning in his seat to look at Kyle with dark purple eyes behind a pair of glasses, "strange thing was your eyes kept flashing with some sort of light every minute or so."

"How long was I out?" Kyle asked reclining in the hospital bed so he could sit and still look at the doctor in the room.

"About a week and a half," the Doctor said calmly.

 _I was out that long?_ Kyle asked himself as he scratched his head finding a cat ear instead of the scratchy wig that was supposed to be there and automatically turning pale as snow.

"Doc what happened to... you know?" Kyle pointed to his head and giving his ears a twitch as enfiss.

"Well we had to remove it for a proper scan and to treat your condition so we got rid of it," the Doctor said regretfully, "and more than a few students saw what happened so no point hiding, the whole campus probably knows by now."

"Great…" Kyle said his tone of voice laced with sarcasm and malic.

"Oh cheer up you had friends coming in to see you while you were out and even the headmaster stopped bye," the doctor said trying to cheer Kyle up, "that never happens."

 _Beware the dark returns,_ the dark ominous words echoed in Kyle's head seemingly triggered by the doctor saying thing about the headmaster. "I need to speak with headmaster Ozpin," Kyle demanded trying to get out of the bed.

" _No you need to rest_ ," the doctor said sternly in a deep, raspy and ominous voice with his eyes changing from dark purple to a very dark crimson in color.

"But..."

" _No butts here except for yours staying in that bed or I blow your legs off!... oh yes that would be splendid,_ " the doctor said in the same voice chuckling at the idea which prompted Kyle to stay in bed, before the doctor cleared his throat and his eye color changing back to normal, "now you have some friends out in the waiting room would you like me to send them in?"

"Yeah... sure," _anything to keep you away from me,_ Kyle shook his head and the purple clad doctor stepped out of the room. After a few seconds of waiting Onyx bounced into Kyle's lap licking at his face causing Kyle to laugh and scratch behind the wolf's ears, "down boy."

"Nice to see that you're up, sparky... sleep well," Yang said from the doorway with a cheeky smile.

"Sparky? Did it take you a week to come up with that one?" Kyle said in a mocking tone.

"No only half a week," Weiss corrected stepping passed Yang causing the blonde to turn red.

"No I came up with that when he showed off his semblance," Yang said with a matter of a fact attitude.

"That's an even worse excuse," Kyle said shaking his head while Onyx nuzzled against his hand.

Kyle looked around the room his heart sinking slightly finding only the three of them in the room, "where is everyone?"

"Do you realize what time it is?" Weiss asked tilting her head to the side and crossing her arms in a puzzled way.

"No I don't," Kyle said.

"It's almost curfew JNPR were here earlier but they needed to get to sleep we have tests tomorrow, and Blake is back in the dorm room helping Ruby study," Yang said.

"We would have left, too if Ruby hadn't ordered us to stay behind," Weiss said sighing, "she said "that at least one of us should stay so when you wake up you're not in an empty room alone."

"Hey Ruby assigned me to wait for him," Yang said pointing to Onyx with a smirk, "you're only here because of the canine next to sparky."

"Toshay," Weiss said crossing her arms and looking away from Yang.

"Remind me to thank Ruby when I'm able to get out of this place, alright bud," Kyle said to Onyx while the wolf stared at him blankly and the two girls bickered.

"Okay," the doctor said walking into the room a few minutes latter typing something on his scroll, "I'm going to have to ask you girls to leave for tonight, this young man needs his rest and you both have classes in the morning."

"Okay, Doc. whatever you say," Yang sighed in annoyance, "see you later, Kyle."

"Goodbye, Kyle," Weiss said tapping Onyx, "come on let's go you can see Kyle later, he needs to get his rest."

"See you guys later," Kyle called after the two girls and the wolf as they exited the room before bowing his head and folding his ears down.

"Mr. Argentum I'm going to have to ask you a few medical questions before I leave for the night," the doctor said sitting down in one of the chairs next to Kyle's hospital bed.

"Ask away," Kyle said lifting his silver eyes to the doctor.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Dorms…**

 **Time: 20:46…**

 **Blake**

"Is Kyle okay?" Blake asked as Yang and Weiss walked through the door to the dorm room quickly followed by Onyx who ran in and jumped on Blake's bed licking at her hand until Blake scratched behind his ear.

"Don't worry your crush is fine and awake," Yang teased winking at Blake who immediately blushed, "probably getting all four of his ears talked off by that Doc. though."

"Yang, you know full well that it's not like that, he's just my _friend_ ," Blake defended.

"That's not what I saw when we first got word that he was sent to the infirmary," Yang stated with a smirk and a wink as Blake's cheeks turned a bright pink.

"We all ran to see if he was okay when we heard that," Blake glared at Yang with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Well to be fair you did kind of stay in the waiting room for a couple of days after words," Ruby jumped into the conversation from her bunk.

"You, too, Ruby? I thought you were better than this," Blake stated unable to formulate a proper response or a good excuse which only made Blake's cheeks turn a brighter pink.

"Hey I was just stating a fact I'm not taking anyone's side here," Ruby defended crossing her arms.

"Can you dolts stop bickering please and leave Blake's love life alone, we have tests tomorrow so I suggest we deal with this after we get through that," Weiss defended while massaging her temples. Ever since Blake told her team she was a Faunus Weiss had been more supportive of Blake and took her side more often than not. Blake thought that it was just Weiss saying sorry for her and her family have put Faunus through over the years.

"Yeah, thanks Weiss... that's a good idea," Blake said with her cheeks still bright pink as she curled up in her bed facing the wall and pulling up her covers with Onyx curling up at the foot of the bed.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon Infirmary…**

 **Time: 14:36…**

"Hello, Kyle you in here?" Blake called out as she walked into the room Kyle was recovering in with Onyx.

"I'm here," Kyle said from behind a curtain on the far side of the room, "just getting dressed."

"Okay," Blake said taking a seat next to the door.

"So what happened since I went under?" Kyle asked from behind the curtain.

"Well everyone knows that you're a Faunus now so the wig won't help you any more," Blake called out.

"Well I've known that, what else?" Kyle asked.

"Well Jaune's shield got stuck in a door Pyrrha and Ruby think CDNL are behind it, but Jaune isn't telling anyone what exactly happened," Blake said hearing something fall to the ground where Kyle is changing.

"What do you think?" Kyle asked with a slight touch of venom in his voice.

"I wouldn't put it past Cardin or his goons they have seemed to be going after Jaune more and more since you've passed out," Blake shrugged.

Kyle stepped out from behind the curtain his hair was groomed back and his cat ears were flattened in anger. Kyle's wardrobe consisted of the school uniform minus the coat and tie with the top two buttons at the collar unbuttoned and the sleeves of the dress shirt rolled up just under his elbows. "Remind me to have a word with Cardin later," Kyle stated after letting out a deep breath.

"Sure," Blake said with a smile.

"I'm sorry to cut this short, Blake, but I need to go see the headmaster it's important and I'm already running late," Kyle said in an apologetic tone.

"What?" Blake said flabbergasted.

"It's a long story," Kyle said trying to move toward the door but was stopped by Blake.

"Then you can explain it on the walk to the headmaster's office," Blake confronted Kyle with a stubborn look.

"Fine but for far warning you might not believe a single word I say about it and truthfully I don't believe myself," Kyle warned signaling for Blake to follow him as he went around her and out the door.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Location: Beacon CCT Tower…**

 **Time: 15:00…**

 **Kyle**

Kyle looked at a visibly confused Blake as they ascended the lift up to Headmaster Ozpin's office at the top awaiting a response to what he had witnessed in his comatose state that Kyle had explained in vivid detail to the woman in front of him.

"You're right I don't believe you," Blake stated bluntly as she crossed her arms, "and even if this is true what if this woman isn't on the Kingdom's side?"

"I don't know, Blake," Kyle responded leaning his back against the lift's wall opposite Blake with his arms crossed and looking down at the ground, "that is the reason I need to speak with the headmaster, so I can figure out what is going on and get this thing, whatever it is, out of my head or help with this incoming threat."

"I get it but it's no less worrying," Blake said repeating Kyle's posture against the lift's wall opposite him. Blake and Kyle stood like that for the rest of the travel upward to the Headmaster's office at the top of the CCT Tower.

"Mr. Argentum it's nice to see you up and moving how are you feeling?" Professor Ozpin greeted with a smile in a friendly as Kyle stepped of the lift into the Headmaster's office quickly followed by Blake.

"I'm fine Headmaster but there is something I need inform you on, it's why I was gone for so long," Kyle said causing Ozpin to adopt a more serious look and losing the smile he had not a second ago. So Kyle explained what happened to him and the conversation with the Maiden Amber including the warning.

"This… makes things very, _complicated_ ," Ozpin said sternly while his hands firmly held in fists on his desk, "thank you, Kyle, you did good work go return to your dorm and maybe hang out with your friends. I'll contact you when we will need you again."

"But…"

"Please, trust me just for know be a kid, have fun, learn. I will call on you when the time is right," the Headmaster looked around the room, "none of this leaves this room understand and that means you."

"I understand," Kyle said in frustration.

"You two are clear to go I have work to do," Ozpin ordered them out of the office.

 _This changes everything,_ Ozpin thought to himself as the two Faunus re-entered the lift and went back down.

Ozpin pushed a button on his desk pulling up a screen with Professor Goodwitch on it as soon as Kyle and Blake's tram system went down, "Glynda get me secure line to General Ironwood," Ozpin pulled his scroll out.

"Understood Headmaster I'm on it," Glynda said as the screen turn off.

"James," Ozpin said into his scroll after a few seconds, "the _rook_ is in the field."

 **XXXXXXXX**

"Is it just me or is the Headmaster up to something?" Blake asked an unresponsive Kyle who was staring out into space, "KYLE!" Blake slapped Kyle's arm forcefully to get his attention.

"Ow… sorry, I heard you," Kyle said rubbing the arm Blake slapped.

"Then why did you ignore me?" Blake demanded her ears under her bow twitching slightly.

"Because I was thinking…" Kyle trailed off. _That hatch in the forest there's something in there,_ Kyle's eyes widened.

"Kyle?" Blake asked.

"I know where we can get answers," Kyle said in a determined tone.

"Where?" Blake asked tilting her head to the side in curiosity.

"We need to go to the Emerald Forest I found something out there during initiation I think there's something to it I wasn't able to figure out then," Kyle stated clenching his fists.

"Never a dull moment with you is there," Blake said with a warming smile plastered on her lips.

"Nope," Kyle said popping the "P" for emphasis, "you coming along?"

"Wouldn't miss it though it will take time out of my day from my books," Blake said giving Kyle a fake pout.

"Just like old times," Kyle stated fondly.

"Except less giant killer robots and ground to train hopping," Blake added.

"True," Kyle chuckled leaning against the lifts wall facing the door as the lift continue going down.

 **XXXXXXXX**

 **Yes cliffhanger…**

 **What will our heroes find?**

 **What is lurking under the Emerald Forest?**

 **When will the plot ever thicken?**

 **Will I ever post chapters faster?**

 **Will I ever stop asking questions?**

 **Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z...**

 **Well I hope you guys like it this was a pain in my ass to do. Don't forget leave a review down below and follow and favorite if you are enjoying this.**

 **Until next time Iron Warriors signing off…**


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